Shake Your Body
by jespah
Summary: In August of 3110, time begins to really unravel as bodies litter the Temporal Integrity Commission. Daniels travels to 2192 as his fellow agents handle issues in 1986 and 1957. And what's going on in the Mirror Universe?
1. Chapter 1

Time is unraveling.

 _Star Trek  
Enterprise_

 _Shake Your Body_

A Star Trek Fan Fiction By  
J. R. Gershen-Siegel

 **P  
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Some material may be not be appropriate

for children under 13

 **This is a fan written work**

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. .LStok

Chapter 1

 _Come on, shake your body baby, do the conga  
I know you can't control yourself any longer  
Come on, shake your body baby, do the conga  
I know you can't control yourself any longer  
_

– Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine (Conga)

=/\=

In May of 2192, in a cheery little blue-painted house on Lafa II, an old woman lay down to rest. This, in and of itself, was hardly remarkable, and scarcely the stuff of interest.

Yet there _was_ something different, for old women have lain down to rest for millions of years, and they will lay down for untold millions more. But on this particular day, and in this particular place, the woman closing her eyes was named Charlotte Lilienne O'Day Beckett Reed.

Unlike most of the humans of her time, she knew the Calafan people, and had experienced their style of dreaming for nearly thirty-five years. The Calafans had tattooed her arms and legs with a kind of mock calloo, or extremity markings. Natural calloo and, it turned out, her tattoos, was spiked with a kind of dream amplifying alloy. The psionically gifted Calafan people had evolved with calloo, and had had deeper, richer and more meaningful dreams than any other species in the Milky Way galaxy.

There is a septum between universes, this and the next, and so on. Each vibrates at its own radiation band frequency. The ancients called it the music of the spheres and they were not so far off.

The universe that we call home vibrates at twenty-one centimeters. On one side – across a stream, as it were – there is a twenty-two centimeter universe, but the dinosaurs on Earth never died out there. And so life is different and there are no humans. Mammals have never gotten larger than rabbits, and they remain as frightened as coneys. Small wonder if you are, often, the star ingredient in someone's stewpot.

On the other side, across a metaphorical pond, there is a twenty centimeter radiation band universe. That one is far closer to ours. History there was identical to ours until, on that side, a man named Marcus Titinius was born about five hundred years before Christ. There was nothing outwardly strange about Marcus, save that he was more aggressive than his peers. But he was also more clever and resourceful, and he did everything to assure that his many children – who inexplicably were nearly all boys – survived to adulthood.

The driver of Marcus's behavior was not environment. It was heredity. He was the first person in the twenty centimeter radiation band universe to exhibit a _Y Chromosome Skew_.

The _skew_ saturated his blood with testosterone – far more than men in our universe can take. The _skew_ also made him more virile. He was a better lover, better endowed and more productive. His seed lived longer and worked harder to hit their targets. And he was a caring father, and an excellent provider. He had a wife, yes, and mistresses and numerous slave girls also enjoyed his attentions. He sired more children than he knew about, and supported the ones he knew. About three-quarters of his offspring were male, yet even his daughters inherited his tendencies. He was endlessly insatiable.

And so the _skew_ cleft the twenty and twenty-one centimeter universes in twain. They remained close, but not quite identical, as the _skew_ spread, by the creation of more babies, the addition of more lovers and the rejection of other males as being unworthy. Once you went _skew_ , you never wanted to go back. The universes were close, but definitely different. It was Alice Liddell leaping into a funhouse.

The mirror was distorted.

The septum between the twenty and twenty-one centimeter universes was on Lafa II, in an area that was a hill – it would have been charitable to call it a mountain – called Point Abic. The Calafans – the people of Lafa – knew about the septum, as they had been crossing it for generations, and long before Marcus and his _skew_ existed on the other side of things and began to drive non-skewed Y chromosomes into a recessive status.

The Calafans had used their dream states to cross between the two universes. They did it so often and on such a regular basis that relationships formed. When relationships between the King in each universe developed with the Queen in the counterpart universe, the governments of both Lafa systems realized that things had gotten out of hand.

And so they erected a barrier between the two universes, but brought the barrier down when Lili – that is, Charlotte Lilienne O'Day at the time – fell in love with a man she'd met through her dreams. He was from the twenty centimeter universe – Douglas Jay Hayes.

He was brought to our universe, changed his surname to Beckett, and they married.

Their marriage had been a loving, happy one, but it had also been an open one, and so a total of six children had been born, but their parentages differed.

Two – Marie Patrice and Jeremiah, known to all as Joss – were from Doug and Lili together. Another three – Tommy, Neil and Kevin, who had died young, were Doug's with a woman named Melissa Madden. And one was Lili's with her second husband, a man named Malcolm Reed – their son was Declan.

Having dream amplifying material – in the form of mock calloo tattoos such as Lili sported, or in the form of Doug's wedding ring, or a bracelet owned by Melissa, or a cuff worn by Malcolm – made it possible to make Calafan-style dream contact. For them, the contacts were a way to have a second relationship, and sustain it.

Lili and Doug had a loving daylight marriage. Melissa and her partner, Leonora Digiorno – for Melissa was bi – had their daylight life together. And Malcolm had days filled with a busy life in Starfleet, first as a Lieutenant Commander, then as a Commander and, finally, as the Captain of his own starship, the _DC-1505_ , the _USS Bluebird_.

But at night, things diverged. Melissa fell into dreams with Doug, and Lili fell into dreams with Malcolm, long before they ever wed. As for Leonora, she enjoyed her regular human dreams and had no desire to trade them for Calafan ones. She didn't want a spare lover, either.

These dreams were often steamy, even as the parties aged. These were, after all, love matches. As for the children, they were conceived in the usual way, with both parties awake, eager and more than willing.

But in 2192, Doug was gone, dead for a good decade. At their children's urging, Lili had agreed to marry Malcolm, less than a year after Doug's death. A part of her decision – unknown to all – was that she had also been convinced by a Calafan-style dream about Doug.

He had – _was it really him?_ – given her closure. And, somehow, he had assured that she would forget all about that dream. She had, and instead, on that morning, had awoken with renewed love for Malcolm.

They had married on May twenty-fifth of 2182. It was now May twentieth of 2192, almost a decade later. And Lili was laying down, not so much to rest, but to have a Calafan-style dream. But this time she would be dreaming alone, without Malcolm, for the first time since they had wed. This was in an effort to make contact again with the mirror.

=/\=

"Are you tired, Lili-Flower?" Malcolm asked, calling her by an old pet name.

"I'm all right. I usually want to lie down in the afternoons anyway," she replied, smiling at him.

"I saw you brought in groceries," Melissa said. She and Leonora were visiting. "Did all the perishables get put away?"

"Yes," Lili said, "there are also tofflin plants. Maybe you could plant them while I'm under," she said to Malcolm.

"I shan't leave your side," he said.

"We can do it," volunteered Leonora.

"Oh, would you? That would be wonderful," Lili said, "maybe near the day lilies. The last time Rick was here, he did something to the day lilies, and now they grow big and strong every year."

"And then we'll harvest the tofflin roots and make tea," Malcolm said, smiling at her and kissing her.

"Can't wait," Lili said, "but first, a rest and some contact. I'll ask High Priestess Yimar about that time ship we saw."

"Good," he replied, "be with who you desire."

=/\=

Rick was Rick Daniels, and he was a time traveler, but it wasn't his time ship that they had seen. Instead, they had seen a stolen time ship.

Rick was born on February third of 3069, a good 930 years after even Leonora's birth. He could and did travel to Lili's time period but he had had restrictions placed upon him and he could not travel to the mirror during much of her lifetime and beyond. This was due to him fathering a child – and the child's mother was a mirror woman, the notorious legendary Empress Hoshi Sato.

He was not allowed to see his son, Jun, who had been sterilized so as to not compound the temporal issues that such a birth rather obviously created. In addition, it was a requirement of the mirror government that both Hoshi and Jun believe Rick to be dead.

A cover story was created, that he had perished in a 2157 shuttle crash on Daranaea, a planet of fox-faced aliens.

Rick worked for an agency known as the Temporal Integrity Commission. Its original purpose had been to shepherd temporal archaeologists and anthropologists, in order to allow them to observe history as it unfolded.

Rick had been to AD 79 Pompeii for the eruption of Vesuvius, he'd been to the French and Indian War, and he'd even been to 2063 Bozeman, Montana in order to witness Zefram Cochrane's inaugural flight of the _Phoenix_ , the first Warp One vessel, which also led to the First Contact with any other species, the Vulcans.

Those had been heady times. But then, he had had to witness too many senseless deaths, and was not permitted to prevent any of them or change any outcomes whatsoever. This tore at him, and jaded him, and eventually he began to seek comfort in the arms of the women he met in his temporal travels.

He first bedded a Quaker widow during the time of William Penn, but quickly graduated to a hippie chick during the Kent State Massacre, a 1929 flapper just before the Stock Market crash, an engineer on the _Enterprise-E_ , a 1417 actress, 2763's _Future Guy_ 's assistant/girlfriend and many others, including the Empress, but she was the only one who had turned up pregnant.

That phase of his life finally ended when, on a trip to 1968 Prague, he had met Holocaust survivor Milena Chelenska. He had thought he was incapable of loving another person, and it had certainly seemed that way. But no – he had just needed to find the right person.

And she had died in 1969, nearly exactly 1100 years prior to his birth. He was irritable and tired of things. But he was a good soldier, and did what he was told.

The same could not be said of some of his colleagues. Their job was, ostensibly, to assure that the timeline stayed the way it was supposed to, that it retained its integrity.

Yet there was a counter movement afoot, to allegedly improve time. They called themselves the _Perfectionists_ and they had infiltrated the Temporal Integrity Commission. There were moles in the Human Unit, but there were others. The Commission had a unit for each Federation member species, so that covered virtually every Milky Way species with Warp capabilities except for the Borg.

Rick's job had evolved to taking a time ship – his was the _HG Wells_ – to the past and putting back what had been "perfected". Good or bad, the changes that the Perfectionists made could not stand.

=/\=

 _Come on, shake your body baby, do the conga  
I know you can't control yourself any longer  
Feel the rhythm of the music getting stronger  
Don't you fight it 'til you tried it, do that conga beat  
_

– Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine (Conga)


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

 _Everybody gather 'round now  
Let your body feel the heat  
Don't you worry if you can't dance;  
Let the music move your feet  
_

– Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine (Conga)

=/\=

So far as Richard Daniels and the rest of the Temporal Integrity Commission were concerned, the present date was August the eighth of 3110. They were unaware, except in the most abstract sense, of what was happening – or, rather, had already happened – in 2192. There had been certain changes made to the mirror universe, but they were not yet ready to repair them. Instead, they were being debriefed about a far greater present threat.

All of the Commission member species were being informed. The Vulcans went over all logical alternatives. The Imvari and the Daranaeans looked at a projection written in their various pictograph writings. The Ferengi busied themselves with figuring out how to profit from the coming chaos – they were the only member species still using any form of specie. The Klingons were ready to get their bat'leths wet with the blood of the new threat. For that was the nature of the meetings – the member species were learning about a new enemy that used time for its transportation and was shaping up to be quite a galactic threat.

In a small conference room, Human Unit leader Admiral Carmen Calavicci spoke with nearly all of her subordinates. She was peeved that one of them – Doctor Marisol Castillo – was missing. But this could not wait for the return of the prodigal daughter.

Carmen spoke. "I have received word from my superior, Bryce Unger, about a significant new threat. You all need to be prepared. It will likely be violent."

"Violent?" asked Temporal Agent Polly Porter. She was a middle-aged woman, a trained psychologist. Before working at the Commission, she had been a kind of therapist to the stars. She was certainly in no position to assist with open warfare.

"Yes, we are, sad to say, on a front line, suddenly," Carmen said.

"Can't they just move the _Adrenaline_?" asked the young Quartermaster, Crystal Sherwood. The Commission was located on a ship, the _USS Adrenaline_ , which permanently stayed just outside the galactic barrier. Moving it was a reasonable idea under any other circumstance.

"They can, but it won't matter," Carmen said, "for our friends use a bit of a temporal displacement drive for their propulsion."

"But that's what the old _Audrey Niffenegger_ uses," Kevin O'Connor said. Part-Gorn, part-human, he was the department's Chief Engineer and was the most likely of the entire group to save an injured robin fledgling and nurse it back to health – and the most likely to weep when it spread its wings and flew away.

"True," Carmen said, "but, oh, allow me to start from the beginning, all right?"

"Sure," said Temporal Agent HD Avery, who was the department's music and arts specialist.

"We were recently contacted by the Zetal," Carmen said.

"The who?" asked Temporal Agent Sheilagh Bernstein, who specialized in ancient computer systems.

"The Zetal are a non-humanoid species that hails from the Andromeda galaxy," Engineer Deirdre Katzman read off a PADD.

"Right," Carmen said, "they contacted us. Their galaxy has been decimated by a powerful species known as the Varg-i-yeh."

"I've never heard that word before. Or is that a phrase?" asked Otra D'Angelo. Otra was half-human and half-Witannen, and had the ability to see alternate timelines much faster than any computer. Her Witannen parentage gave her chavecoi, a kind of symbiotic bouquet of semi-conscious flowers in her scalp, in lieu of hair. But since she wasn't a full-blooded Witannen, she didn't have that species' vestigial wings.

"You are correct," Carmen said, "It's a phrase. It means _scourge of the galaxy_."

"That doesn't sound so good," said Temporal Agent Dan Beauchaine, who was still a bit drunk and a bit hung over from a recent bender. He didn't do them too often, but he had been wondering if that would now start to be a more regular occurrence. He had seen far too much destruction already, even though he was a new employee. But this also mixed in with the fact that he was not only a Section 31 operative, he was also in with the Perfectionists. He simply had too many balls in the air. Unlike Rick, he didn't seek solace with women, even though he could feel himself becoming clinically depressed by what he had seen. That was a little flaw in his character and genetic makeup, a thing that he had successfully hidden from the section and the Perfectionists and, now, the Commission. That tendency to tip into melancholy and then farther, all the way over, into full-blown depression, would have been a career-ender if anyone had known.

So he had a lot of things going on. He had to keep secrets from Carmen, from the Section, and from the Perfectionists. His work with the Commission required that he, sometimes, allow innocents to suffer and perish, all in the name of the almighty standard timeline. And he was fighting his own biology.

Another fifth of bourbon sounded like a damned good idea.

"Huh?" asked Engineer Levi Cavendish. He was pretty good at what he did but he was readily distracted. Unlike Dan, his foibles and idiosyncrasies were well-documented and on display for all to see. He had Asperger's and Adult ADHD. He rarely ever held anyone's gaze and his mind often wandered. But he understood time ships and temporal propulsion systems, and Otra seemed to like him, so Carmen kept him around.

"What are you looking at? Are you still on about that _Manifesto_ file?" asked Doctor Boris Yarin, the department's other doctor. Boris was part-Klingon, part-human and part-Xindi sloth. The combination made him edgy and paranoid. Compounding his nerves was the fact that, up until relatively recently, he had been having an affair – Boris was the only married member of the department – with the missing Marisol. He knew exactly where she was, and that knowledge did nothing whatsoever to comfort him. She was putting the screws to him – at the request of the Perfectionists, although Boris did not know that particular detail about her – and the game of blackmail had been kicked up several notches, for she was, at that very moment, having tea and a nice chat with Boris's wife, socialite Darragh Stratton Yarin.

"No, I got the _Manifesto_ on the back burner," Levi said, referring to a decrypted file they'd received from the Perfectionists. All but one paragraph was deciphered.

"People!" Carmen was insistent. "Allow me to finish."

"Yes, of course," Kevin said, "C'mon, folks."

"Thank you, Mister O'Connor. Now, the Varg-i-yeh have been seen but not by anyone who's known to be humanoid so the descriptions may not be the best. They are reportedly completely bluish-purple in color, including the eyes, which are compound, much like an insect's."

"What's so special about them?" asked Tom Grant, the last of the Temporal Agents. His specialty was military operations – he had made it as far as a Colonel's rank before being recruited to work for the Commission.

"Lots of things," Carmen replied, "first off, their propulsive systems are, like I said, temporal displacement-based."

"But that's old news technology," Deirdre said.

"Right, but they use it rather differently than we did," Carmen said, "instead of simply shifting straight ahead or behind in time, they also continually create new versions of themselves by shifting back and forth. So Varg-i-yeh number one goes to, say, January fifth and returns. Then that same Varg-i-yeh goes to January fourth. The second iteration then stays in the fifth, thereby creating what are two separate iterations."

"But if they touch, they'll merge under the temporal integration theory, right?" Levi asked. Even he was interested.

"But they don't, because they scatter. Now, imagine this on a grand scale, with ships and thousands of personnel, over and over again. Essentially it's almost a clone army," Carmen said, "kill off iteration number fifty and there are still another forty-nine of them out there. These iterations are all over the place, in different stages of development and different quadrants of, now, at least two galaxies. And the Milky Way is going to be the third."

"What about their military capabilities?" Tom asked.

"We know that the Zetal had more trouble with them than they've had with anyone. We don't know a lot about the capabilities of Andromeda galaxy denizens, and we know even less about residents of the Triangulum galaxy."

"Triangulum? Why are we caring about them?" asked Rick, who had been mostly silent.

"That's where the Varg-i-yeh are from. Now, there are a number of other things about them. I've sent informational packets to all of your PADDs. We are the front line, children," Carmen said, "and I'm afraid we are mostly going to have to stay in. I recognize that our pals the Perfectionists are going to possibly seize upon this opportunity and attempt to exploit it for their own gains. So we are going to be busy. I am sorry, but it has to be this way."

"Carmen, my wife is not going to like it if I cannot come home at all," Boris protested.

Tom was also concerned. He had a girl – Rick's younger sister, Eleanor. He didn't want to have to be apart from her for that long.

"I'm sorry," Carmen said, "I just don't know what to do about this. But unless you're going out to repair a timeline – and we both know you don't travel, Boris – then I'm afraid you'll have to stay in for the nonce. Dismissed."

=/\=

 _It's the rhythm of the island, and like the sugar cane so sweet  
If you want to do the conga, you've got to listen to the beat  
_

– Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine (Conga)


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

 _Come on, shake your body baby, do the conga  
I know you can't control yourself any longer  
Feel the rhythm of the music getting stronger  
Don't you fight it 'til you tried it, do that conga beat  
_

– Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine (Conga)

=/\=

Back in 2192, Lili fell asleep and began to dream.

 _She was in a long corridor and started to walk down it. This, she knew, was the start of a standard Calafan-style dream if you don't have anyone in particular to meet. She was just about ready to call the name of the mirror High Priestess, Yimar, in order to make contact when, instead, she heard her own name being called._

 _There was a figure ahead of her. She ran toward it, and the years fell away. She was no longer eighty-three years old. She was forty-eight suddenly. And then she saw that the figure was a tall man. He stepped toward her and she trembled._

" _Please don't be afraid of me," he said gently, "I wouldn't be able to bear it if you were ever afraid of me."_

" _I can't help it," she replied, "this is supposed to be a Calafan-type of dream, but with you here, it clearly cannot be."_

" _Why not?"_

" _Don't tell me you don't know."_

" _I know that I'm dead, Lili," he said, and she could see his face clearly, looking just as he had when they had met, in a dream much like this one, in October of 2157. He was Douglas Jay Hayes Beckett, her first husband._

=/\=

Lili had been talking in her sleep since she had first been able to talk. Malcolm expected to hear her murmur a few words as he sat nearby, and she did speak. He distinctly heard her say, " _Don't tell me you don't know_."

=/\=

In the garden, Melissa and Leonora were digging a few holes to plant the tofflin, a native Calafan plant. "Do you think this is deep enough, Mellie?" asked Leonora.

"Oh, I guess so, Norri," she replied,

"Wait, before you put the plant in, let me add this. The soil by Joss's – where the asparagus and the day lilies grow – it seems to be really good. So let's add some," Norri said. She returned a little while later with two large fistfuls and threw them into the hole. Melissa then put in the plants.

"I wonder why they're planting this. It's invasive – it grows everywhere." Melissa shrugged. "Maybe they just want fresh tofflin juice every morning." The plant was naturally spiked with caffeine, so that would be a bit like a morning cup of coffee.

"Actually, I heard Malcolm mention a tofflin root tea. That's a far different purpose," Norri replied, tamping down the earth with her foot.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, uh, it's supposed to, um, help with male potency."

"Holy cow," Melissa said, "well, we shouldn't be gossiping about them, or let them know that we know. I mean, isn't Malcolm almost eighty? Ya gotta figure that could become an issue."

"Wasn't Doug about that age when he passed?"

"Yeah," Melissa said, sighing a little in remembrance, "he was seventy-eight. But he, uh, he didn't have any such issues."

"I guess that's the mirror universe, working overtime," Norri said, "Hand me that watering can, will ya? Let's make sure their tofflin gets a good start. Let it be a part of our tenth anniversary gift for them."

=/\=

 **In the mirror, the Empress Hoshi Sato was enjoying the attentions of her latest conquest, a former Eligian order monk named Milton Walker.**

 **What would the Empress – who could and often did have anyone she pleased – want with a former monk, a man who had not been with a woman for years?**

 **It was neither Milton's charms nor his physical attributes, both of which were dubious, that held her interest. Rather, it was his time ship that was piquing her curiosity.**

 **His stolen time ship, that is.**

 **He and his daughter, Helen, had stolen a time ship right from under the Human Unit's noses at the Commission, in 3110. They had had a little inside help from an engineer sympathetic to the Perfectionists' cause. After all, one doesn't just simply take a time ship. It requires a little finesse and preplanning.**

 **They had needed a time ship in order to pass over the septum between the two universes. Unless you were mainly Calafan – from either side of the pond – you could not cross the universal barrier without a little help. The help came in the form of a pulsed gamma ray beam from a phaser bank, known colloquially as a** _ **pulse shot**_ **.**

 **And a time ship such as the one they had stolen – the** _ **Flux Capacitor**_ **\- was set up to fire pulse shots.**

=/\=

In 3110, as the meeting continued, Deirdre Katzman was getting a little worried. She was a junior engineer with a sense of humor and a taste for old time travel fiction, and had been the one responsible for naming all of the time ships. The oldest of the ships, still using an old chroniton-based temporal displacement drive, was the _Audrey Niffenegger_ , named after the author of _The Time Traveler's Wife_.

The remainder of the ships ran on dark matter – that drive had been invented by Kevin O'Connor. Rick's ship, the _HG Wells_ , was for the author of _The Time Machine_. And the _Flux Capacitor_ was in homage to the Back to the Future films. Another ship, the _Jack Finney_ , was named after the author of _Time and Again_. Another ship was on the drawing boards but never was built – the _Elise McKenna_ , named for the heroine of _Somewhere in Time_.

Plus there was one outlier, the successor ship to the _Audrey Niffenegger_ , the _Audrey II_. Just to mess with everyone's head, that one was named after a man-eating plant from the film _Little Shop of Horrors_.

Right at that moment, as Deirdre was listening to the meeting, she was also thinking about a guy who had called her earlier. She had not known who the hell he was, and that had troubled her a great deal, especially because everyone else seemed to think that she'd been dating the mystery guy – Bruce Ishikawa – for over a year, was serious and was beginning to bow to familial pressure to accept a ring and set a date.

But she had no memory of him whatsoever.

It seemed a cruel trick that the universe was playing on her, to toy with her feelings that way and exploit and magnify her loneliness. She was not averse to finding love – and perhaps Bruce was as likely a candidate as anyone – but she did not know him at all. It was a feeling of losing one's mind, of not knowing, not only what was behind the next corner, but rather not knowing what was behind the next cerebral fold.

Her memory had been tampered with, as a side effect of the Perfectionists getting their hands on what was referred to as the master time file. The master time file held most major records since, well, since as long as humans in both universes had been keeping records. It held grain shipment records from the time of Cleopatra as well as the sales records for Buddy Holly's _Peggy Sue_. It contained the votes of the Second Continental Congress and the names of all of the medalists from the 2724 Winter Olympic Games held on Andoria.

It was also protected by an encryption algorithm and a temporal force field. The field also protected all of the members of the Temporal Integrity Commission, and made them extra-temporal – outside of time. This was useful in case a time traveler messed up so badly that he or she accidentally wiped out his or her entire family. With the field, the traveler remained extant, and would be able to help with restoring the correct time.

But when the field had been breached in order to allow the Perfectionists to capture a copy of the master time file that had also breached the field for everyone and everything else. Hence anyone could be altered, and no one's memory could really be trusted.

Was Deirdre right, that Bruce was just some random stranger? Or was everyone else right, who said he was her fellow – the guy she'd been talking baby talk to on her implanted Communicator for months, whenever she thought others were not listening.

She sat there, and she wondered, and she wondered if she had completely blown things with him when she had been, earlier, so upset at him calling, and calling her _baby_. Who was he, to call her _baby_.? Why did it hurt so much? Not only was she upset by what felt like improper advances from a stranger, and by the feeling that her mind was slipping, she was also just plain upset because of her loneliness. She made up her mind as she sat there. She'd try to call, and patch things up, claiming something, anything. A cold, maybe, stress, or hard work was responsible. If he turned out to be a good guy, then she'd go along with it. Maybe she could learn to love him. And if he wasn't, then she figured she knew what to do then, too. She turned her attentions back to the meeting.

=/\=

 _Feel the fire of desire, as you dance the night away  
'Cause tonight were gonna party, 'til we see the break of day  
_

– Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine (Conga)


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

 _Better get yourself together, and hold on to what you've got  
Once the music hits your system, there's no way you're gonna stop  
_

– Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine (Conga)

=/\=

" _Yanno, this happens every time," Doug said, still in Lili's dream, still in 2192. There was no hint of exasperation. It was merely a simple statement of fact._

" _I don't get it. This has happened before?"_

" _Yes," he said, "whenever you sleep by yourself, you dream about me, ever since Malcolm retired from Starfleet a few years ago. So it's not often – usually when you sleep, he's with you, and you dream together. I pick my moments with you. They don't come too often."_

" _Why do I forget these dreams?"_

" _You're supposed to," he said, "for otherwise, you'd just live to sleep, pretty much. You'd give up on life, and on him. And you shouldn't. You've got a whole lot of it left, and it's with him and it's going to continue to be wonderful." He took her hand, and there was a bit of sparking between them, although it went away quickly._

" _Ionization," she said, "I bet I say that every time, too."_

" _Don't be upset," he said, "these dreams are – they are kind of a gift. And they're a break for me."_

" _A break?"_

" _Yeah, I uh, Purgatory is very real. Ian and I both have a lot to work off. Not so much for Jay."_

" _Jay, I take it, you mean your counterpart, Jay Hayes. But who's Ian?"_

" _Malcolm's mirror counterpart," Doug explained, "he wanted to distance himself from all of the terrible things he had done in his life, so he took a different name."_

" _Kind of like you decided you wanted to be Beckett instead of Hayes when you crossed over to this universe?"_

" _Originally, that was to protect Laura Hayes, Jay's sister, to keep her from just stumbling across me. But as time went on, I also felt the new name helped to give me a fresh start. Doug Hayes was a killer, he cheated on every girlfriend he ever had and he never let himself get close to anyone. Doug Beckett was a family man, a loyal husband –"_

" _In an open marriage," she reminded him._

" _Yes, that's true, but I never wanted anyone but you and Melissa, never."_

" _Speaking of her, are you ever in her dreams?"_

" _Most nights. She tends toward depression; I think she needs the help. But she also forgets."_

" _I see," Lili said._

=/\=

From his seat near the bed, Malcolm clearly heard her say, "Are you ever in her dreams?"

=/\=

Helen Walker lived on Callisto. Or, rather, she was hiding out there, for a goodly portion of the Perfectionists' secrecy had been the faking of her death, in 3109. She and all of the Human Unit's less senior time travelers – including the AWOL Doctor Marisol Castillo – were interviewed by Carmen in a group interview setting. Then they had left the Temporal Integrity Commission in two shuttles. One shuttle was fine. The other crash-landed on Berren One.

Helen was presumed dead, a victim of the crash. Marisol even confirmed that, but it was all a part of the ruse. HD Avery had been on that shuttle, and he and the others had gotten out in time, before the shuttle was consumed by the superheated daylight side of that benzene-soaked tiny world. Because time was short and the other passengers were in peril, the body had been left in the shuttle. It seemed that rapid cremation was the only thing in Helen Walker's future.

Instead, she was very much alive, and had been beamed out, taken to 1959 in the _Audrey Niffenegger_ – briefly swiped by an insider – and had observed Rick putting back a little test run of a temporal change.

She saw how he did things, he succeeded, she got herself back to 3109, and they were off to the temporal races. On the way, the Perfectionists got a hold of a dandy piece of time travel technology.

A temporal enhancer cuff would be held or worn, and a date and coordinates selected. All a time traveler had to do was swallow a dose of a companion substance known as trichronium and off he or she could go. Return was achieved when the dose of trichronium had worn off. It was far easier to secrete than a stolen time ship. Its only flaw was that it couldn't cross universes. For that, you needed a time ship.

Helen had been a time traveler for the Perfectionists, performing tasks such as keeping people off planes fated to crash. Or she would perform diversionary missions, like bribing a computer company executive in order to prevent his company from releasing the software that had become the first LAN.

She worked with other Perfectionist time travelers, and had even acted as the bait for a blackmail scheme. She had a medical degree and, before her falsified death, had been a Professor of Medical History at the Dione Medical School.

But now, with her father in the mirror – and a good 900 plus years before her, she had been cut loose – at least partly. Her father had been the leader of the Perfectionists, and he had been the one holding the Temporal Enhancer cuff. He had given the cuff to her when he had gone to the mirror – and eventually to the arms of Empress Hoshi.

His ostensible successor to the leadership of the Perfectionists was a time traveler named Donald Oliver. However, it was Helen who still held the Temporal Enhancer cuff, and she had been instructed to not give it up without a fight. Whoever held that cuff, held the real power in the Perfectionists' organization.

She sat alone in her home and spun the cuff around a finger, as if it were some small, ornate metallic hula hoop. She gazed at a PADD screen, performing research.

"All right," she said to no one, Titania drawl honey in her voice, "Daddy only wants us to cover the first epoch of the Space Age. That's 1957 – Sputnik – to 2063 – the first Warp One flight. I need one good kicker of a mission and one or two diversions. And I've got some ideas."

She shifted positions before continuing. "If the first epoch is so vital, let's see what happens if we put back one of the biggest space-related events of that time period? As for my diversions, let's define the space and time. So, one for 1957, and the other for 2063," she paused, "oh, these are gonna be so good! Ya'll are gonna be so proud o' me, Daddy!"

She smiled to herself and contemplated the consequences of all three proposed alterations.

=/\=

" _I will bring you to Yimar," Doug said, changing the subject, "because I know this is important. Time is going to start to unravel. There are going to be any number of things going on at once, both on your side and in the mirror."_

" _But you said I'd forget. So warning me of that seems kinda pointless," Lili stated._

" _That part you'll know. You just won't know how you know it."_

 _They began to walk together. There were other people in the dream, but they did not make eye contact. It was if they didn't see Doug and Lili. They came to a door. "This is it," he said, "she's in there."_

" _When do I see you again?" Lili asked._

" _In a year or so. This is one of the last times you'll see me before, well, before you see me and Jay and Ian and everyone else, all the time."_

" _So I'll die soon," Lili rolled that over in her mind._

" _Just over a decade from now."_

" _Does Malcolm remarry?"_

" _No," Doug said, "he'll join you less than a month later."_

" _Suicide?"_

 _Doug shook his head. "It's more that he just can't go on. You'll get here, and he'll get here, and one of the things you'll learn is just how intimately connected the two universes really and truly are. You see, whoever you loved, you love their counterpart, too, and vice versa. I mean, you ever notice how there are so many people who have counterparts? It's because the same people tend to pair up. So you're gonna find that you love Jay and Ian, too, and that they'll be in love with you. And Jay will also love Melissa, just as he and I love her counterpart, who's already here."_

" _Doug, my counterpart died when she was nine. Don't tell me," she shuddered, "that part can't be right."_

" _She – and you – and everyone – can be any age they like, even one they never got to experience in life. So she – she goes by Charlotte – Charlotte isn't a little child when, well, when you know."_

" _So there's lovemaking in heaven?"_

" _They wouldn't call it heaven if there wasn't. Now go. I love you. I am available whenever you need me, and I am always listening."_

" _How do you find time for it all?" Lili asked._

" _We can bend time and shape it anyway we wish. But you shouldn't. And that's the problem." He leaned over, and they kissed, lingering._

 _Then he vanished into the mists and was joined by two other shadows – Ian and Jay, although they could not really be seen, and Lili had not known that they had been there all along. She changed back to age eighty-three, unaware that she had been any other age, however briefly._

 _Lili shook herself as if she had been dreaming within her dream, not remembering but knowing that something strange was happening to time, or was about to, and that she had to warn mirror High Priestess Yimar, and somehow they'd all have to figure out how to stop it._

 _She pushed on the door in front of her, and it opened._

=/\=

 _Come on, shake your body baby, do the conga  
I know you can't control yourself any longer  
Feel the rhythm of the music getting stronger_

 _Come on, shake your body baby, do the conga  
I know you can't control yourself any longer  
Feel the rhythm of the music getting stronger_

 _Come on, shake your body baby, do the conga  
I know you can't control yourself any longer  
Feel the rhythm of the music getting stronger_

– Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine (Conga)


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

 _Don't you fight it 'til you tried it, do that conga beat  
_

– Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine (Conga)

=/\=

" _Ah, you are here," said the mirror High Priestess, Yimar._

" _I suppose I am," Lili said._

" _We saw a rip in the septum between the universes," Yimar said, "a ship emerged on our side. It then beamed down a passenger and opened up another rip behind itself, very close to the ground. The passenger, she strode over, back to your side. That second rip then closed up and we do not know what happened to her, or where she went."_

" _We didn't see her," Lili said, "but we did see the ship when it originally appeared. Yimar, something is going to happen to time. That's a time ship. Time is going to; it's going to come apart somehow."_

" _We have seen the Defiant's return," Yimar said, "it has shown up on our sensors and will be here soon."_

" _That's Doug's old ship, from long ago," Lili said, "Empress Hoshi Sato is in charge of it, or at least she was."_

" _We know of the Empress. And there will be danger here, when she learns what has been happening," Yimar explained, "for there are some of her people here, still, who escaped years ago and hid out in our forests and in other secret places off the grid. There are two engineers here, Jennifer and Charles, among others. They have helped our people to create parts for that kind of ship. If the Calafan people can have Constitution class ships, we will not have to fear the Empress ever again."_

" _How are you producing it all?" Lili asked._

" _One of our planets already has factories – Lafa V. We have hidden the parts manufacture, making it appear as if we are making metal jewelry and furniture."_

" _Turning out cuffs?" Lili asked, indicating a copper-colored cuff on Yimar's left wrist._

" _No, no facsimiles of the Cuff of Ub, or of the Cuff of Lo, the one your husband wears," Yimar smiled, "it is earrings and such. There are species that would pay quite well for the parts we are making. The Vulcans, perhaps, would be the wisest choice for clientele, but the Andorians seem to be willing to pay more for our wares. It is an interesting problem to have."_

" _What about time? I wish I knew what we could do, or how we could even tell it was happening at all," Lili said._

" _You will need to contact Daniels," Yimar said._

" _I know, but how?"_

" _Leave a permanent record of some sort," Yimar suggested._

" _I, I feel I am awakening," Lili said, "I'll think of something."_

=/\=

From his nearby perch, Malcolm distinctly heard her say, "I'll think of something," just before she awoke.

"What happened?" he asked.

"I, I spoke with Yimar. And she said the Empress is back in their version of the Lafa system. So she's got that in addition to whatever happened with that time ship, wherever it went."

"That's tricky."

"Yes," Lili agreed, "they're, she said that on their side, I guess this is the right term, they're trying to reverse engineer an advanced ship design, called the Constitution class. That's the kind of ship the _Defiant_ is."

"And that's from, well, it's from _our_ future, and not theirs," Malcolm mused, "I wonder if that's the only way they'll truly be able to advance their technology – by stealing it from others."

"That makes some sense. I remember Doug once told me how different their first contact with the Vulcans was from ours. Zefram Cochrane didn't shake hands with the first Vulcan he saw – he shot him. And then they just took that Vulcan ship. They based the _NX_ designs on it."

"Then they do engage in technological theft."

"Right," she said, "and right now, it's the counterparts to Tripp Tucker and Jennifer Crossman Ramirez who are leading the way in manufacturing the pieces of these Constitution class ships. Yimar says it's just the pieces right now, and they're being built on Lafa V, where there are already factories to begin with."

"Where are they going to assemble these ships?" Malcolm asked, "It is one thing to put together components into about the size of a shuttle. But once you get much larger than that, you're apt to attract some unwanted attention."

"Yimar mentioned they're looking to sell the parts. She mentioned the Vulcans and the Andorians were interested."

"For an advanced ship, everyone will be interested. With that time ship, they could even come here, yes?" He wore a dull grey cuff – the Cuff of Lo – on his left wrist, and he often tapped or patted it absently when he was nervous or upset. It was an old habit from when they'd been younger and apart a lot more. And he was tapping.

"She might try – the Empress, I mean," Lili said, "but I bet the rip – Yimar called it a rip between universes – I bet it's not big enough for an _NX_ vessel, let alone one of the Constitution class types. I recall an attempt made many years ago with a scout vessel, maybe half the size of the _NX-01_. It's funny; they're completely bypassing the Defense class."

"Yes, the _DC-1505_ , the _Bluebird_ ," he said, "my old ship."

"Yimar mentioned I should try to contact Rick, and I agree, we should make the effort. Her suggestion was to make some sort of a permanent record, use that as the message."

He thought for a moment. "Richard is a good thousand or so years from now, isn't he?" She nodded. "PADD messages can be erased."

"Or the technology could be lost. Hmm."

"Perhaps we could create some sort of fossil," he finally said, after they'd thought about it some more.

"Fossil?"

"Yes. Stone or bone, right? Either one would survive a millennium."

"How would he know what to look at? There must be a billion stones here on Lafa II alone," she pointed out.

"It'll have to be some sort of a special stone."

She got up and put on her shoes.

"Where are you going, Lili-Flower?"

"To, to talk to Doug," she said, "kind of ask him what he thinks."

He knew what she meant, and he knew to let her go.

She walked out to the garden, where Melissa and Norri were sitting in chairs under the four suns, near where they had planted the tofflin. She smiled at them but did not stop to speak, and instead walked down a little rise to her son, Joss's house, and to his own garden.

Malcolm came out, too, and said to Norri and Melissa, "She needs to have a bit of a conversation."

The three of them watched as Lili walked over to where there were two headstones in Joss's back yard, which had, when Doug was alive, been her back yard. One of the stones was Doug's. The other was Kevin's – the child who had not even lived for one month.

She first read the inscriptions aloud. " _Kevin Madden-Beckett – 2177 – Adored brother and son. We hope he now has a chance,"_ then she added, _"Douglas Jay Hayes Beckett – 2102 – 2181 – Devoted husband, father and companion_." She took out a handkerchief – a gift from Malcolm – and wiped her eyes.

She paused and stood next to Doug's headstone and spoke. "I need your help. Something is going to happen. And I feel it'll be terrible. I have to get a message to Rick, in some sort of permanent kind of a fossilized manner," she rested her hand on top of the stone, feeling a smoothed contour, "Can you tell me?"

She recalled when the stone had been carved and delivered, how it had reopened some of the wounds from the loss of Doug, but also had sewn up other bits. "Would you look at these stones? I can't deface them," she said, a little teary again. 

There was a hand on her shoulder. It was Malcolm's. "What if we did something different?"

=/\=

And once it had been accomplished, it became what is called a _pariotric_ event – an alteration in time that has a meaning. Otra – she of the Temporal Integrity Commission's Human Unit in 3110 – felt the change, and had a vision of an avalanche.

They were still in the meeting, and saw her collapse, and Boris made sure she didn't injure herself, for her visions were a lot like epileptic fits. The fit passed, and she opened her eyes, and recounted it, and they were unsure what it all meant, but then an alarm went off as the computers registered that a change had occurred.

=/\=

On Kronos, Darragh Stratton, Boris's wife, was busy listening to tales told by Marisol Castillo. She told Darragh of the many times and ways Boris had done it – in the backs of dark, crowded transports, on desks, in a park, in a love nest on Cardassia and in numerous hotels with _no questions asked_ policies.

And the name of Boris's lover – that was the one untruth, but it was quite the vital one, for Marisol did not implicate herself. She told Darragh that Boris's paramour was not herself and instead was none other than Admiral Carmen Calavicci.

Darragh listened and took it all in. When Marisol was finished, she asked, "Well?"

"I'll think about it."

"We made a deal," Marisol reminded her, "don't back out just because you don't care for what I've just told you."

=/\=

 _Come on, shake your body baby, do the conga_

– Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine (Conga)


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

 _Goddess on the mountain top_

 _Burning like a silver flame_

 _The summit of beauty and love_

 _And Venus was her name_

– Bananarama (Venus (Reprise))

=/\=

On Callisto, Helen Walker picked up a voice masker. It was a marvelous bit of technology whereby her voice could be disguised in practically any manner. It was used by the Perfectionists during their audio-only meetings, so as to disguise the participants, for the less you knew, the less you could tell if you were ever caught.

She sent out the signal to all. Still a bit inebriated, Dan pointed to his left ear, a signal that a call was coming in. All of the Temporal Integrity Commission employees had an implanted Communicator. You can't accidentally lose a Communicator in 1601 if it's embedded within your left ear canal. Plus, the interface directly to the brain made simultaneous translations virtually flawless.

"Uh, can I take this?" he asked Carmen.

"All right," she said. Having to keep the entire department in was bad enough. Carmen figured she'd have to concede most calls, particularly personal ones.

He departed, and made his way back to his office before acknowledging the call.

On Kronos, Marisol, too, heard the chime. "Excuse me," she said to Darragh, "I must go. You won't forget our little talk?"

"No, of course not."

Rick received a call. And so did an engineer.

"Tell you what," Kevin said, "may I suggest that we adjourn until the computers have finished compilin'?"

"Good idea," Carmen said, "dismissed."

=/\=

Call ready, Helen began to speak, "As you all probably are aware, our leader has gone into hiding. But we're not done. Not by a long shot. There will be, as per usual, a main mission and two diversions."

"There's talk at the Temporal Integrity Commission about a species coming in. They use temporal displacement and make virtually infinite copies of themselves," reported Dan, but with the masking, it was not possible to tell that it was really him.

"How very interesting," Helen replied, "perhaps we can work with these people. I'll have to think about that."

"That's not your call," said an unidentified voice. Unknown to all, it was Donald Oliver – the Perfectionist time traveler who was supposed to be succeeding her father. But things were different and he was beginning to doubt Milton's promises.

"It is," she replied, "for I have the means to send anyone wherever and whenever I please. Now, I've got a big mission and two little ones. We'll go through them of course – and when I get back, I'll see if I can make contact with that species. I suspect we'll find we have a few things in common. One hand washes the other, as it were."

"If they even have hands," Dan said under his breath.

"What was that?" she asked.

"Oh, never mind."

=/\=

Rick's call was different. "Brother dear," it was his sister, Eleanor, "I have some rather interesting news."

"News?"

"Yes, here at the museum – we seem to have something that might interest you professionally. I, well, I think it would be best if you were to see it in person."

"I'll try to come, but they're looking to keep us in most of the time," he said.

"Oh," she was a tad disappointed, "still, I don't know how long this will be here."

"I'll see what I can do. Daniels out."

=/\=

Watching it all at the Commission, outside looking in, was the colony entity, trying to determine what to do, and whether anyone could be trusted.

=/\=

Boris engaged his implanted Communicator. "Darragh Stratton, on Kronos, please."

"Yes?"

"Ah, my angel!" he said, "I am being forced to stay in. Carmen wants us to –"

"Don't you _my angel_ me! Boris, we need to talk, and soon. I want the house," Darragh was livid.

"I cannot come over! Carmen is keeping us in."

"You mean she's keeping _you_ in," Darragh seethed.

"Me?" 

"Yes, for a little game of _chase around the desk_ , is it? Or are you going to violate her in the courtyard garden in the middle of the _Adrenaline_?"

"What?!"

"Don't play coy with me, buster. I know all about it."

"And just who are you hearing these things from?" he asked, although he already knew the answer.

"I'm not at liberty to say," she then hung up on him.

Alone in his office, he stood there, lost in thought. Losing his position – a very real possibility if he got a divorce – would not be good for his career. And then there was the little matter of Marisol. She had told him she was going to see Darragh. He had known that much. And he had swallowed his fear and paranoia and had even attempted to cover for her a bit, for she was putting the screws to him and he was feeling pressure.

But she had also told him that if he did that, she would not tell Darragh anything. At least, that was how he remembered their conversation. And now Marisol had spilled it all. Her word meant nothing to him. And to implicate Carmen, a completely innocent bystander, was the very height of chutzpah.

 _Didn't she have any scruples at all?_

Of course not, but scruples hardly matter when you're a psychopath.

Marisol was a killer and had virtually no qualms whatsoever about doing wrong or lying. The lines between lies and truth had long ago blurred and thinned, until they had finally been obliterated.

Whatever she wanted, she took. Fortunately for most others, money was gone from this stage of society, so she was generally not much of a thief. But other pieces – violence, deception and greed – those were still there. After all, a society without money, that existence, in and of itself, hardly cures anyone of being mentally unbalanced.

Much like Dan, she had certain tendencies, but they were well hidden. But unlike him – and Section 31, where he had begun his career, and begun it honestly and honorably – she had thrown in her lot with the Perfectionists rather early. And they did not care quite so much about her mental stability. They needed jobs done, and she was eminently qualified to accomplish them. What were a few lies and dead bodies among friends?

=/\=

"Grant, come with me," Rick said to Tom.

"Where are we going?"

"Carmen's office," he replied.

She let them in immediately. "Carmen, my sister says she's got something," Rick said.

"I beg your pardon?"

"My sister, Eleanor, she works at the Temporal Museum on Lafa II," Rick explained, "and she knows what I do, but no specifics. She says there is something, and I believe her."

"So far I don't think Kevin has anything on the temporal change, right?" Tom asked.

"Right," Carmen said, "I would rather you boys stayed in."

"I know," Rick said, "but she said it's something she should show me in person. And I want Tom here as a witness. Our memories aren't necessarily reliable these days. He can corroborate."

"Assuming he recalls it at all himself," Carmen pointed out. She thought for a moment. "All right, but beam out and back. No shuttle, no time ship. Report back immediately. And tell no one else. Just go."

=/\=

 _She's got it_

 _Yeah, baby, she's got it_

 _I'm your Venus, I'm your fire_

 _At your desire_

 _Well, I'm your Venus, I'm your fire_

 _At your desire_

– Bananarama (Venus (Reprise))


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

 _Her weapons were her crystal eyes_

 _Making every man a man_

 _Black as the dark night she was_

 _Got what no one else had_

 _Wow!_

– Bananarama (Venus (Reprise))

=/\=

Everyone got off the Perfectionists' call except for Helen Walker and Donald Oliver. They knew who they were speaking with – being fellow time travelers, sometimes required to work together, made their acquaintance not only possible, but advisable.

Donald spoke. "Milton said I was gonna be in charge when he left."

"Things have changed," she drawled. Her accent was a product of her upbringing on Titania, where everyone speaks with a gentle Southern drawl reminiscent of the Carolinas on Earth. Tom Grant had the same drawl, although they did not know one another.

"Where is he?"

"A safe place."

"You won't tell me, will you?"

"It's on a need to know basis, Donnie. And you don't need to know," she smiled, "now, ya'll want the one big mission or the two smaller ones?"

=/\=

They beamed over to Lafa II together. "I appreciate you letting me tag along," Tom said.

"I don't just need you to witness this," Rick said, "I also, well, we both know we're not going to be let out much, probably for the duration. So you should at least tell Eleanor that in person."

"Well, thanks."

"I'm doing this for _her_ benefit," Rick added, "she's been hurt too many times." Always the big brother.

She greeted them at the museum once she saw them, kissing each of them on the cheek. "Tom! I'm so pleased!"

"I'm glad to see you, too," he said, "but this may be it for a while." She was crestfallen. "We're being ordered to mainly stay in. It may be a while before I can see ya'll again."

"Are you in any danger?" Her question hung in the air momentarily, like a thick black cloud.

"We're not sure," Rick said, "and there's a lot we can't tell you. Let's just say the future is unknown."

"Isn't it always?" she asked. She led them to a portion of the museum that was encased in a huge transparent aluminum dome. "Now I think you both know this, but it bears repeating. The museum is in possession of the first human habitation here on Lafa II. We have the house, the grounds and everything. You can see the kitchen, the video photograph wall, bedrooms, where Lili and Doug Beckett slept or watched the viewer or whatever, with or without their children. The day lilies and the asparagus still come up every year, without fail. The museum chef even cooks the asparagus." She was a docent, and this was a part of her spiel.

"All right," Tom prompted.

"And here in the back are the headstones," she led them there, "once two of the sons had been buried here, after all of the elder generation had gone, the surviving family decided to use the regular human cemetery instead – it had been established by then. They didn't want the back yard to simply be overrun, and turned into a boneyard. They wanted the children and grandchildren to continue to feel comfortable playing there."

"If I remember correctly, in order from first death to last," Rick said, "they are Kevin Madden-Beckett, Douglas Jay Hayes Beckett, Charlotte Lilienne O'Day Beckett Reed, Malcolm Reed, Melissa Madden, Leonora Digiorno and Thomas Digiorno-Madden, am I right?"

"How many is that?" she asked.

Tom went over them again in his head. "Seven."

"Right," she said, "and how many headstones are out there?"

Rick counted. "Eight."

"It gets better," she said, leading them closer, "look at who the extra one is for."

The engraving was plainer. It was clearly not a professional job. Tom read off, " ** _Richard M. Daniels, 05202192 – 29120250_**."

The last eight numbers were not just a palindrome, but were also the reversed images of the first eight.

"Reversed script," Rick said, "What do you think?"

"Well, didn't one of the first human settlers have a business called _Reversal_?" asked Tom.

"It was a restaurant," Eleanor said, checking a PADD.

"I can see why you realized this didn't belong here," Rick said, "I wonder – why would they mock up a headstone, for me, I guess. Is there a body under there?"

"No," she said, "we took scans and there isn't a body, there's no coffin and no evidence of digging, save to make sure that the headstone stays in the ground. All of the other seven have coffins – Kevin's is smaller, of course – but this is meant to differ."

"The writing is different as well," Tom said, "the others are more decorative, and Lili's headstone even has an engraved day lily. But this is just plain, sans serif writing."

"I bet it was done by an amateur," Rick said.

"We are fairly sure it was engraved by use of a hand phaser," Eleanor said.

"So it was done on the cheap," Tom said, "and there's no body. This is a message."

"Definitely," Rick said, "and Lili had met me before. Do you have a carbon date on the headstone?"

Eleanor checked her PADD again, "It's from the late-twenty-second century. I suspect we can trust the May twentieth of 2192 date. Lili O'Day was definitely still alive then. She was Lili Reed by that time."

"But why is she writing to me about _Reversal_?" asked Rick.

"Actually," Eleanor said, "I suspect it's not a reversal. It's a mirror."

"May twentieth, 2192, in the mirror," Rick said, "dammit, if there is something going on, then and there, I can't go."

"Why not?" Tom asked.

"It's a long story," Rick replied.

=/\=

Boris heard a trill in his ear. It was not a Communications chime. Rather, it was an indicator of an urgent data-only message. He grabbed his PADD. It was from a law firm, Koenig and Brooks, a name he did not recognize. He cautiously opened the message and the full force of what was happening smacked him right in the face.

He had been served with divorce papers. He read through them, quickly, panicking. This was not a no-fault divorce. The listed grounds were adultery and cruelty. And the named co-respondent was none other than his boss, Admiral Carmen Calavicci.

He was about ready to run into Carmen's office and throw himself at her mercy when he heard another trill. This one was definitely a Communications chime. It was Carmen. "Get in here," was all she said.

=/\=

"I can't go to the mirror then because, well," Rick sighed, "you ever wonder why, no matter what kind of a mission it is, you're required to take a birth control shot?" he asked Tom.

"I figured it was a standard precaution."

"It never used to be the rule," Rick said, "but something happened."

"A mirror girl?" Tom asked.

"Not just any mirror girl," Rick said, "but the Empress Hoshi Sato herself."

Tom whistled through his teeth. "How many of her kids were yours?"

"Just the one, her first born, Jun."

"I take it the mirror government was none too happy," Tom said.

"Carmen really went to bat for me," Rick confided, "first they wanted him to never be born, so we devised a bunch of ways to make his life palatable to them. This included sterilizing him."

"But it also included," Eleanor interjected, "Richard being banished from the mirror during Hoshi's entire lifespan. She was also told he'd died in a crash on Daranaea."

"You knew about this?" Tom asked Eleanor.

"Some of it. The gory details are, of course, not for me to know. But I did know of it, yes. Our own parents don't even know that they have a grandson."

"Who is older than a bunch of great-grandparent generations away," Rick said, "It's a mess and I suppose I can understand a bit about why the mirror government was so cheesed about it. But, yanno, he's my kid. He didn't ask to be born but now that he has been, I don't want to see him just snapped out of existence."

"What's his date of birth? It's not in 2192, is it?" Tom asked.

"No, he was born in the 2150s," Eleanor said.

"November first, 2156," Rick specified, "I have never seen him. He dies in 2258."

"But that's after Hoshi dies, isn't it?" Tom asked, "So you could see him then, right?"

"I haven't tried to," Rick admitted, "it feels like too much to explain."

"I am thinking someone needs to go to the mirror in 2192," Tom said, "and check out whatever the hell happened, whatever made the Reeds feel they needed to contact you."

"You should go too, Richard," Eleanor said, "they know you. They don't know Tom."

"Assuming Carmen allows it at all," Rick said absently, "look, we'd better get back. El, tell our folks, uh, I dunno, tell them I'm working like a dog and can't get away, okay?"

"Sure," she said.

Rick walked away to give them their privacy. Tom and Eleanor kissed, over and over again. He finally looked at her and said, "I want, when I get back, I don't want to be leaving you anymore."

"I don't want you to leave, ever again, either."

"That means probably what you think it does," he said, kissing her hand, "but there might be, it might be a while. And there are dangers we can't talk to you about. I love you."

"I love you," she said, eyes misting, "be very careful."

"I will, for I belong to you."

=/\=

 _She's got it_

 _Yeah, baby, she's got it_

 _I'm your Venus, I'm your fire_

 _At your desire_

 _Well, I'm your Venus, I'm your fire_

 _At your desire_

– Bananarama (Venus (Reprise))


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

 _Goddess on the mountain top_

 _Burning like a silver flame_

 _The summit of beauty and love_

 _And Venus was her name_

– Bananarama (Venus (Reprise))

=/\=

Boris was breathless by the time he'd jogged into Carmen's office, "Carmen, I must apologize …" he began, but she cut him off.

"I am being named as your _co-respondent_?!" she yelled, "So your wife thinks you and I are having an affair?!"

"I am so sorry; I take full responsibility for this."

"You're darned right you do. Now what the hell is this all about?"

"Carmen, I," he sighed, "the, the charge is not without merit."

"It is from my end."

"It is shameful, what I have done," he said, "I have been having an affair, yes. But it ended a few months ago."

"May I ask with whom?" she said, holding her head. She was beginning to get a corker of a migraine.

"Marisol Castillo."

"And she's not here. That's just great!" Carmen started to pace around her office, "You know what this means, don't you?"

"I –"

" _Don't you?!"_

"I don't, I am sorry," he was getting bewildered.

She made a Herculean effort to calm down. "Do you know how my predecessor lost his position?" he didn't answer, so she filled in the details. "He was having a gay affair. The Commission would not have cared quite so much about it being homosexual, except that Ray was doing it with a Federation secretary. So not only was he splitting his focus, his paramour was as well, so there was Federation pressure to make him go away. And your wife, as you are well aware, her brother is high up in the Federation."

"Yes, Todd is being talked about for the next round of major elections."

"Oh, then this is even more perfect," she said sarcastically, "they aren't going to want any distractions. And this is a big, fat distraction. Therefore, they will push me out. That will be directly after I am forced to push _you_ out."

"And Marisol?"

"I'll be forced to keep her," Carmen said, "for I need a departmental doctor, and if I can her, it'll look like I'm trying to deflect away interest in myself. It's quite a lovely position she's placed herself into. You and I would be gone, in disgrace, and she retains her job."

"You cannot do anything?"

"I doubt it. And then there's the damned Varg-i-yeh. We are supposed to be on the front lines of that little war – which by the looks of it won't be such a little war at all, once they get here. Plus there are our friends in the Perfectionist Movement. Any new department leader not promoted from within is going to be overwhelmed. And then God help us all."

"I had no idea it would be so bad," he said.

"Boris, this is the very antithesis of respect. I, if you had problems in your marriage, oh God, why the hell did you have to do it all here, under my very nose?"

"I –"

She didn't have the time to answer him as the alarms went off again, signaling another change in time.

Tom and Rick got back and could hear the alarms going off. They rushed to Carmen's office, and were surprised to find Boris there.

"We found the first change," Rick said, "I'm assuming the alarms are for some other changes."

"Yes," Carmen said blankly, "what, uh, what is it that you found?"

"There's a tombstone at the old Beckett place on Lafa II," Tom said, "it's dated May twentieth, 2192."

"So?"

"The name on the headstone is mine," Rick said, "They were sending us a message. There's something going on in the mirror. We were thinking we'd go, as I know the people who most likely sent us the message, and Tom is free to go to the mirror."

"All right," Carmen said, "but wait until we have a handle on these latest changes. You may end up with more than one assignment."

Boris was listening to a Communicator call. "Yes, I'll be right there," he said, "Yarin out."

"Trouble?" Rick asked.

"Levi says Otra is having problems recovering from her visions," Boris said.

"The changes must be huge," Carmen concluded, "I'll call a meeting. Despite all of the other things going on, we've still got a job to do here."

Otra was lying on the floor of her office. Levi was holding her head but she continued to convulse. Boris rushed in. "I can handle things from here," he said.

"No, I'll stay," Levi said.

"You sure?"

Levi just nodded.

"Very well," Boris looked down at Otra, "Can you hear me? Can you tell me what day it is?"

"Avalanche… first contact … Borg," she gasped.

"That's really bad, isn't it?" Levi asked.

They assembled in Conference room six again, except for Marisol.

Marisol had been busy. Helen had underestimated just how much it would take to get the diversionary missions done – they always did a few extras in order to throw the Commission off the track. Marisol had been available, and so she was tapped to go to 1957. It was a mission where she had to kill a few people. She always liked those.

As Boris held Otra's head and injected her in the arm with cordrazine, he thought of how to get out of his predicament. And he kept coming up with but one solution.

Otra finally came around. "Where am I?"

"You couldn't stop seeing visions," Levi explained.

"The changes are enormous," Otra said, "I have to tell Carmen."

"Tell everyone in the meeting," Boris said, "Levi, can you take her? I have something I must do."

"Sure." They departed.

Boris walked over to his office. "Computer, locate Marisol Castillo."

" _Marisol Castillo is in Transporter Room four. She has just beamed in."_

"Ah, good," he said, and then dictated a note and sent it before heading there, double time.

She was walking out of that Transporter Room and he fell in step with her. "Nice of you to visit us," he said, "I take it you enjoyed your visit on Kronos?"

"Very much," she said, smiling at him.

"And you told my wife nothing?"

"We had a lovely conversation," Marisol yawned, "I'm really overworked. You'll need to take over for me in lots of ways."

"To be sure," he said, "but first, may I take you somewhere?"

"I don't believe you have those privileges anymore," she said, "we stopped being bed buddies months ago."

"I know," he said, "but perhaps I can convince you." They were close. Just a few more steps. He knew he could physically overpower her. He had done so before, but it had been in the context of foreplay. This time, he had a far different endgame in mind.

"You can't convince me," she sneered, "I never liked you and God knows I never loved you. So cut the crap, Boris."

"Funny you should be evoking the deity," he said, smiling malevolently as he turned a lever.

In the _Adrenaline's_ main control room, they saw a red light flash, indicating an open air lock.

=/\=

 _She's got it_

 _Yeah, baby, she's got it_

 _I'm your Venus, I'm your fire_

 _At your desire_

 _Well, I'm your Venus, I'm your fire_

 _At your desire_

– Bananarama (Venus (Reprise))


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

 _Holding back the years_

 _Thinking of the fear I've had so long_

 _When somebody hears_

 _Listen to the fear that's gone_

 _Strangled by the wishes of pater_

 _Hoping for the arms of mater_

 _Get to me the sooner or later_

– Simply Red (Holding Back the Years)

=/\=

There were Communications chimes all over the Human Unit – everyone had an urgent message on his or her PADD. Bryce Unger had one, too.

And, on Kronos, so did Darragh Stratton Yarin.

"Turn off those damned chimes," Carmen commanded, her migraine beginning to really hit.

"It's from Boris," Kevin said.

"Where the devil is he?" Carmen asked, annoyed.

Levi just pointed out the window, where there were two bodies floating in empty space. Marisol's head was at a crazy angle. Her neck had obviously been snapped. Boris's hands were still on her throat and he stared at them with vacant, dead eyes.

Nearby, a team of two people in pressure suits were attempting to corral the corpses.

The remaining members of the Human Unit all just stared. Crystal began to cry. Sheilagh put an arm around her.

Carmen finally spoke softly. "Is anyone, uh, capable of reading the letter right now?"

After a pause, Deirdre finally said, "I'll do it." Rick was sitting near her. He put his hand on her shoulder as she started to read.

" _My name is Boris Fyodorovich Yarin. I am forty-six years of age, and of sound mind. This letter will be farewell, confession, warning and will all in one._

 _First, to my wife, Darragh Stratton Yarin, I leave everything I own, with no exceptions, to do with as she wishes. It is all I can offer, for apologies are worthless. I have acted completely without honor. I owe you many things, and cannot repay that debt. All I can hope is for you to live your life without any thought of me – no sorrow, no mourning, no regret, no compassion and not even memory. If I could erase our time together, and spare you, I would._

 _All that I ask is one thing, for the divorce papers that you had served on me today are correct in all details save one, and that is the most vital one. The co-respondent you named, my superior, Admiral Carmen Calavicci_ ," they all turned to look at Carmen, who blanched, _"is in error. Carmen is completely innocent. Please have her name removed from all of the documents._

 _Instead the co-respondent should be my coworker, Doctor Marisol Castillo. The affair was very real and went on from 3103 through the beginning of this year. I am certain that any sordid details she told you save the one which replaced her name with Admiral Calavicci's, were accurate. I take full responsibility for the affair, both its onset and its continuation over the years. I am a married man and I should know better, and as a part-Klingon, I should have acted with far more honor._

 _This brings me to the confession portion of this communiqué. By the time you read this, Doctor Marisol Castillo and I will be dead, by my own hands. I again take full responsibility and, for the sake of Doctor Castillo's family, I wish for them to know that I will not blame provocation or any extenuating or mitigating circumstances. I do not ask for their forgiveness or their understanding. I only hope they can know peace._

 _I imagine Doctor Yimiva of the Calafan Unit will perform the autopsies. As we are all aware, the use of Stem Cell Growth Accelerator in order to save all of our lives makes both murder and suicide rather difficult although not impossible. To that end, I am planning to strangle Doctor Castillo and then the lack of air will kill me. I strangle her less for my own personal satisfaction than to spare her the worst of the slower means of space vacuum-assisted asphyxiation._

 _As a warning, I ask that an investigation be conducted into Marisol's comings and goings for her entire employment at the Commission, and a thorough search be made, with proper legal backing, of her home on Cardassia, her bunk at the Commission and the time ship known as the Audrey II. I suspect that she has had some involvement with the Perfectionists. I am hoping I am wrong but I urge vigilance and caution._

 _To Bryce Unger, my hope is that you retain Admiral Carmen Calavicci, even during what is sure to be a scandal that may very well eclipse the one involving her predecessor. The Admiral is an exemplary leader and officer and deserves to retain her position. She is, as I said, utterly innocent. I hope that she can stay, for she is one of the main bulwarks we have against the Perfectionist movement. I feel she will fulfill a similar role when it comes to our new threat, the Varg-i-yeh._

 _And, finally, to my coworkers, I wish you well in your travels, whether they are temporal or merely spatial in nature. It is to my eternal regret that I let a cheap and sordid affair keep me from knowing you better. But even with my limited knowledge, I know that,"_ Deirdre choked up, _"you are the smartest and the finest group of people I have ever worked with._

 _Onward, but not to Stovokor, for that place is reserved for the honorable._

 _There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet._

 _Boris Fyodorovich Yarin, MD"_

There was a Communications chime in Carmen's ear. It was Bryce Unger, "I take it you saw what happened outside the Conference room window, and you read the note."

"Yes, Bryce," everyone in the room waited on tenterhooks, scanning Carmen's face for any clues as to Bryce's mood.

"I think he's right, that there's more to it than an affair gone wrong," he said, "I'd like for you to, one at a time – and confidentially, mind you – begin to investigate any connections that Castillo may have had to the Perfectionists. I'm sure the authorities can get warrants, but start by talking to your people."

"I, I see," Carmen said, "We know we have changes, including a rather specific date in the mirror."

"You're down a traveler," he said, "We both know you're no doctor, but you'll most likely have to fill in and go yourself."

"I can put Kevin in charge while I'm out."

"Good, do that. And I want anyone staying in to finish up decoding the _Manifesto_ file. Let's put the Perfectionists to bed, hopefully before the Varg-i-yeh come knocking at our door. And another thing," he said.

"Yes?"

"I have no reason to doubt Yarin. You'll retain your post."

"That's a relief. Thank you, Bryce. Calavicci out." She looked over at all of them staring at her, "It looks like I'm staying."

There was a knock at the door – funny, not a door chime. HD hit the controls and the door slid open, and they saw a sight that could not possibly be so – a living, breathing Boris Yarin, MD.

=/\=

"How long do you think it'll take?" Lili asked. It was still May twentieth of 2192, and she and Malcolm were standing in Joss's garden, looking at the new headstone they'd just purchased.

"I'll trace your writing," he said, aiming a hand phaser at the smooth grey slab. He slowly began to cut and trace out letters, and then numbers, and then mirror image numbers, as she looked on approvingly.

 _R-I-C …_

=/\=

 _Holding back the years_

 _Chance for me to escape from all I've known_

 _Holding back the tears_

 _'Cause nothing here has grown_

 _I've wasted all my tears_

 _Wasted all those years_

 _And nothing had the chance to be good_

 _Nothing ever could yeah_

– Simply Red (Holding Back the Years)


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

 _I'll keep holding on_

 _I'll keep holding on_

 _I'll keep holding on_

 _I'll keep holding on_

 _So tight_

– Simply Red (Holding Back the Years)

=/\=

Mouths agape, they all just stared. Rick finally spoke. "Boris, what happened?"

His question was ignored.

"I said …" Rick began again.

That got some attention. "We are not that one."

" _We_?" Carmen asked, "Are you Varg-i-yeh?"

"No. They are the enemy. They have tried."

"Tried what?" Kevin asked.

"Genocide. They had tried it. It was first in a remote bunch of stars."

"How many stars were in this bunch?" Deirdre asked.

A pause, perhaps to count. "Billions, about forty billion or so."

"So it was a galaxy?" HD asked.

"Out there." A finger was pointed.

The Conference room was on the far side of the _USS Adrenaline_ , facing away from the Milky Way galactic barrier. There were two bright smudges in the distance – the Andromeda and Triangulum galaxies.

Crystal dried her eyes. "Which one?"

"On the right."

"That's Triangulum," Sheilagh said.

"It's rather unnerving to see you possessing Yarin's body like that," Carmen said.

"It is not possession. It is a shape. Here is another." The shape changed from Yarin to an exact copy of Otra, down to every last detail of her chavecoi.

"That's even stranger," Otra said, "do you have a name?" There was a puzzled look, so she tried another tack, "Is there a designation?"

"We are not … designated."

"Just how many of you are there, and where are they?" Kevin asked.

"All are here."

"It's just you? You're the only one?" Tom asked.

"We are many." There was a splitting, and the facsimile of Otra separated out and became smaller, and a piece became a replica of one of the Conference room's chairs.

"A shape shifter?" Dan asked.

"Many pieces. All can go as they desire. But usually we go together."

Carmen sighed. "Listen," she said, "this is fascinating. And I don't deny that there are perhaps a million separate protocols for First Contacts. And this isn't one of them. But there's naught we can do. We are … under the gun. Do you understand what that means?"

"Busy."

"Right," she said, "we have numerous changes and we have to understand what they are, and deal with them. We have lost two colleagues, just now, and rather violently. I don't pretend that any of us are in terrific psychological shape as of right now. And we are going to have to be working on getting rid of the Varg-i-yeh as well. You mentioned that they are an enemy. They are, we believe, going to be enemies of ours as well. I would love to pick your brain about them, but first I've got to have my people handle the current changes. I'm sorry, but I'll have to put you off for the moment."

The chair turned into a plant, similar to an olowa tree in the courtyard garden that was in the middle of the _Adrenaline_.

"How long you been observing us?" Kevin asked.

"There was a bringing to the other side, then back, then to what is called now."

"Other side? Do ya'll mean the mirror?" Tom asked.

"What is mirror?"

"There is a second universe. There's, well, lots of universes, but we're connected really intimately to that one," Rick explained, "Do you know what day you were moved over? Was it, perchance, May twentieth of 2192?"

Dan glanced over for a second. He hadn't heard this detail before, and wondered if it had anything to do with Milton Walker's hiding place.

"Dates are unknown, but the time was remote, in terms of your own average lifespans."

A branch reached out from the plant and touched its own version of Otra, and then the two merged strangely. "Branch." Deirdre said absently.

"What is _branch_?"

"A portion of, of you," she said.

"It is all, as you say, us." The figure changed and became Boris again, but still had a branch sticking out, perhaps an oversight during the changeover.

"Can you be a person who isn't Boris? Right now that's weird." Levi said, indicating outside, where the two bodies were finally being brought back inside the _Adrenaline_.

Deirdre reached out to touch the branch and it held her for a second. Tom came over quickly. "Let her go," he said, as menacingly as he could.

The connection was broken immediately, and the figure became a young man with dark hair, fully human. He appeared younger than HD, a teenaged, nervous boy.

Deirdre gawked. "You look like my first boyfriend, Anatoly Borodin."

"Acceptable?"

"Sure," she said, "but I'd rather not call you Anatoly. Can you be called, uh, _Branch_?"

"Yes."

"All right," Carmen said, "Kevin, can you take, uh, Branch here to, I suppose, Engineering? I get the feeling all of the time ships will be pressed into service, even the old _Audrey Niffenegger_. I'll tell Bryce, uh, I have no idea when."

"C'mon," Kevin said to Branch, "let's go tour the Commission."

"It has been seen already."

"Well, then just humor me, okay?" They left.

"I can't pretend that that was not odd," Carmen said, "and I maintain that none of us are going to be at one hundred percent, most likely not for a while. But we have jobs to do. Now, Otra, let's talk about your visions."

"I saw three things," she said, "an avalanche, a First Contact and the Borg."

"The avalanche was from before, right?" Rick asked, "Could this have been one of the stones you saw?" He showed a picture of the odd headstone that he had taken with the camera app on his PADD.

"The avalanche started off as stones, but it became, I know this is strange, but it became smoke," Otra replied.

"Smoke? Then it was an explosion," Tom mused, "how big was it?"

"Huge, and in, I think, in midair."

"What explodes in midair?" asked Polly.

"Old nuclear weapons," Tom said, "do you think it was the start of World War III?"

"No, I can't say why, but I don't get that vibe. I get the feeling of sorrow and loss, but not revenge or war or hatred. Does that make any sense?"

"Perhaps it was a nuclear test," Carmen said, "HD, start investigating that, please."

"What's the First Contact issue?" Deirdre asked.

"First Contact isn't with the Vulcans, and it doesn't take place in 2063," Otra said, "I don't think we even have Warp Drive by then."

"What do you recognize?" Sheilagh asked.

"A dignitary – he's an older human male. Maybe he's close to eighty or so? It's hard to say," Otra replied.

"What's he wearing?" Crystal asked.

"An old-fashioned suit, with a strip of cloth tied around his neck and hanging down."

"That's a necktie," Crystal said, "Tell me anything you can about the clothes. Maybe I can pinpoint a decade, at least."

"The suit is brown. The, the necktie is a green color. There is a pin on the side. It's white and blue and red."

"Is this the guy?" Crystal produced an image on her PADD that she projected onto the wall of the Conference room.

"How did you know?" Otra asked.

"The brown suit," Crystal said, "Ronald Reagan wore them all the time."

"You have dates?" Carmen asked.

"He was the American President for most of the 1980s," Crystal said, "this photo is from 1986, from the _Challenger_ disaster speech, um; it's the speech he made at the memorial service in the original history."

"That's the change, or at least it's one of the changes," Polly said, "it looks like there is no _Challenger_ disaster."

"Is this _Challenger_ somehow involved in First Contact?" Carmen asked.

"No, but it is another space shuttle. It's the _Columbia_ , and it's the same year," Polly said, "looks like we had First Contact on July twenty-fourth, 1986, with the Trill."

"So the _Challenger_ not exploding – that's one mission," Carmen said, "what about that explosion Otra saw? Is it the one from the _Challenger_?"

"I think I've found it," HD said, "and it's not a space shuttle at all. It's – look at this," he projected an image of a mushroom cloud onto the wall.

"Which nuke is this?" Dan asked.

"It's 1997, Bangkok," HD read, "It looks like it's, uh, here it is, apparently this nuking ended the Southeast Asian War, whatever that is."

"Vietnam," Tom said, "it must have spread."

"You look up the original history on that and run some comparisons," Carmen said to Tom, "I suspect that'll be our second. And what of the Borg?"

"I see them dead," Otra said, "in a place with snow."

"I know this," Sheilagh said, "the original history, on First Contact day, there were Borg trying to prevent it, or take advantage of it, or something. And their sphere crash-landed near the North Pole. But the _NX-01_ was involved later, and they were revived, and they got a message off to the Delta Quadrant."

"What's the current reality?" Carmen asked Polly.

She checked. "It appears as if the only mentionings of the Borg revolve around them never having come here."

"Or maybe they're not here _yet_ ," Rick said.

"Possibly," Carmen allowed, "All right, that's another mission; I get the feeling the Borg were killed in their little frozen beds in 2063."

"I've got Vietnam," Tom said, "it was not too long after Sputnik was launched, actually. October twenty-first of 1957, is when the first casualty happened in Vietnam. It was Army Captain Hank Cramer of the First Special Forces Group. And in the current reality, he isn't killed, so the beginnings of the war happen later."

"And I suppose the end of the war is later as well." Carmen said.

"By over twenty years," Tom confirmed. "I figure someone saved Cramer. I'm not sure why his survival brought on over twenty addition years of warfare, and it spread throughout the region. The Domino Effect was very real."

"Then that's mission number three," Carmen said.

"There's ours, too," Rick said, "2192 in the mirror, remember?"

"Oh God, yes," Carmen sighed. "I would like to meet and greet with that life form, whatever the hell he is – perhaps he's what we'd think of as schizophrenic, and hears voices in that variable head of his? But I'm afraid I'll have to go on a little jaunt myself." She engaged her Communicator. "Mister O'Connor, what's your status?"

" _Audrey II_ and the _Wells_ are ready," he replied, "we're just finishing up the _Jack_. It helps to have someone who doesn't need to hold a wrench – who can just _be_ a wrench."

"Intriguing," Carmen said, "what about the _Audrey Niffenegger_?"

"That one'll take longer," he said, "I'd recommend sending the others out first."

"Very well," Carmen said, "I'll take that one. Rick and Tom, you're on the mission we already discussed. Crystal, outfit them first – probably only Tom needs anything. HD and Sheilagh, you'll take the _Audrey II_ to Florida in 1986. Make sure that shuttle explodes."

"Right," Sheilagh said. The three of them left.

"Then Polly and Dan, you're off to Vietnam in 1957. I don't think there are many women there. You'll probably have to play at being a nurse. This, dammit, this would be where Marisol would have been helpful." She paused for a second. "We'll, uh, I suppose we'll all suppress things until later. In any event, you'll get the _Jack_. And I'll take the original _Audrey_. I, uh, I would like a partner."

Otra looked up. "There aren't a lot of folks to choose from. I'm out. I guess Kevin could be sent."

"No. Mister O'Connor, you're in charge while I'm out."

"Okay, boss. O'Connor out."

"Levi, Deirdre and Crystal," Carmen mused, "uh, Deirdre, how would you like to go back in time?"

"Um, sure. It might be for the best. I can fix the old _Audrey_ on the fly if she starts to balk."

"Good thinking," Carmen said, "and let's get the last paragraph of that damned _Manifesto_ file cracked. Everyone work on it when you can. Let's try to have that one done by the time the last of our four couples gets home," She sighed wearily, "Dismissed."

=/\=

 _I've wasted all my tears_

 _Wasted all of those years_

 _And nothing had the chance to be good_

 _'Cause nothing ever could oh yeah_

– Simply Red (Holding Back the Years)


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

 _I'll keep holding on_

 _I'll keep holding on_

 _I'll keep holding on_

 _I'll keep holding on_

 _Holding, holding, holding_

– Simply Red (Holding Back the Years)

=/\=

There was nothing to do but fly. Everyone had gotten an individual message from Carmen. All it said was " _Gather up anything you can think of when it comes to Marisol. And Boris, too. We'll talk later. Keep this strictly confidential_."

So as the various teams flew – and Otra, Kevin, Crystal and Levi stayed behind – everyone began to marshal their resources when it came to their two now-dead coworkers.

Deirdre and Carmen sat in the _Audrey Niffenegger_. Deirdre piloted.

"Can we talk about Marisol and Boris?" Carmen asked, "Or is that too troubling right now?"

"I guess it's all right. Now that I know there was something going on, it does confirm some things that I had thought I was seeing."

"Like what?" Carmen inquired.

"Well. They were together a lot. At first I thought it was medical stuff, but then the main surgical work was done. All of the new people had gotten their physical enhancements, so what else was there to talk about?"

"True. What else did you see?"

"She was strange," Deirdre said, "and I knew her for the better part of a year, yet it feels like she was just this stranger. I mean, I never knew him that well at all, either, but he always seemed kind of, well, approachable. She always seemed cold and distant. It made me wonder how or why she had become a doctor in the first place."

"I suppose if we need a doctor for any reason, we'll call on Yimiva in the Calafan unit. I do hope Otra doesn't have any more serious episodes like she had today. Then we really will need an on-call doctor for all the time, and I've got no one on tap to replace either Boris or Marisol."

"I'd say so," Deirdre said, "uh, rounding 2900. Man, _Audrey_ is slow!"

"Well, perhaps Mister Grant and Mister Daniels can get _Fluxy_ back. I wonder how they're doing."

=/\=

They were a lot closer to their destination, but they were going to 2192 instead of 2063, and the _HG Wells_ was a lot faster and nimbler than the _Audrey Niffenegger_.

"How do ya'll wanna do this?" Tom asked.

"Hmm," Rick was piloting, "I guess I'll keep the _Wells_. Otherwise I'll be totally stuck if you can't get back. But you can, I assume, get _Fluxy_."

"I hope," Tom said, "how are you gonna get me to the other side of the mirror?"

"The septum between the universes isn't that thick there. I guess it's a bit like the Earth's crust. You'd think it would be the same thickness everywhere, but it's actually not. And the same is true of the separation between the two universes. There are places where it's thinner than in other spots. The Lafa System is one of the absolutely thinnest of spots. Plus the Calafans of 2192 actually all know about the mirror, whereas that's not necessarily the case for Klingons or Trill or the like."

"All right, but a pulse shot still needs to be fired, right?"

"Right. I'm thinking, we'll go to 2192. We'll land, even, on our side of the pond. Talk to the Beckett family. They obviously either got the headstone there or it was kept there with their approval so they're the ones to start with. Then I figure I fire a pulse shot somewhere near the ground. I guess you could hop over, eh?"

"Not too high. I'm just not much of a high jumper. It looks like we're rounding 2400."

=/\=

On the _Audrey II_ , HD piloted as Sheilagh paced a bit. "I still can't believe it. I feel terrible, and I wasn't close to either of them."

"Well, I mean, c'mon, Sheilagh, it's not like you shouldn't feel anything. Two people you know just died. And it was not very nice the way either of them went. My God. I don't wanna know what was happening that, that caused this."

"Me neither," she said, "It makes me feel a little like nothing is worthwhile."

"Why do you say that?"

"Well, how can we believe in love or marriage or whatever if it just falls to pieces as spectacularly as all that?"

"Sheilagh, you must know people who are divorced."

"I do," she said, "and that's fine. But to just carry on like that, and then have it all end like, like the way it did?

"It's not like that's never happened before, or anything, either."

"It just, I dunno, it seems like it's something that should happen to other people. I want to, I want to believe that things can work out and people can go through life without, well, without causing so much deliberate carnage in each other's lives. And I'm not even talking about their deaths. Just, in general, people seem to be so damned mean." She walked to the back of the ship, where there was a sleeping area. The ship had been promised to Marisol. It still had some of her personal effects in it.

Sheilagh walked into the bedroom area and sat down on the bed and just started to sob. HD realized something was amiss – more amiss than perhaps she was letting on – and threw the ship into auto. He walked to the back.

" think I get what you mean," he said, "All we seem to see these days are a bunch of things that are really terrible. Where's the good stuff?" He sat down next to her and awkwardly put an arm around her shoulders. His face betrayed his nervousness, but she could not see that.

"And who are the good people?" she sobbed.

"Well, you are."

"Me?"

"Sure," he said, "you're the best one."

"The what?"

"The best one. And, and not just of the chicks but in general. C'mon, don't you know that?"

She kind of lunged at him to hug him, and he reciprocated, a little startled but glad to be, finally, holding her.

She kissed him on the cheek and he did the same back and then thought better of it, and kissed her mouth, close-mouthed, lower jaw twitching and trembling a little. She looked him in the eye. "What are we doing?"

"I dunno," he said, "Something I, uh, I've wanted for a while. But I, uh, you don't have to. If, uh, if you don't want to."

"I, uh, I want to."

=/\=

 _That's all I have today_

 _It's all I have to say_

– Simply Red (Holding Back the Years)


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

 _Your lights are on, but you're not home  
Your mind is not your own  
Your heart sweats, your body shakes  
Another kiss is what it takes  
_

– Robert Palmer (Addicted to Love)

=/\=

Sheilagh came up for air. "So, what does _HD_ stand for, anyway?"

"What?"

"You heard me."

"Why are you asking?" he inquired.

"I wanna know the guy I'm kissing a little better. And who I'm going to go to bed with."

"Oh," he barely squeaked out, processing this new information. He had thought they'd just quit at necking. He had not counted on it going that far.

"And?"

"It's, uh, it's Henry Desmond. I'm the fourth one."

"I can see why you go with HD."

"My great-granddad is Hal. My granddad is Harry. My father goes by Hank."

"So you could be Henry. Does anybody call you that?"

"Just my mother," he said, "my father just, this is embarrassing but he still calls me _Little Hank_. I hate it. He thinks we're _Big Hank_ and _Little Hank_ , as if I were five years old again. I totally and completely hate it."

"I get that," she kissed his nose, "can you also tell me, why me? I am twice your age. Don't tell me it's just 'cause you think you can get some from me, 'cause if that's the only reason, this is ending right now."

"That's not the reason. And I know about the age difference," he said, "It's not like I don't like girls closer to my own age. I even tried to ask out Crystal once."

"And?"

"I never actually went through with it. I didn't really want to be with her. I just, I wanted some experience for when I could, uh, hopefully get with you." He awkwardly pulled her to him, and their teeth clicked when they kissed.

"A little less enthusiasm with that, I think," she advised.

"Oh, uh, sorry."

"You still didn't really answer my question. Why me?"

"You're smart, you're sexy. You're perceptive, yanno? You just, you come up with a lotta great ideas. As a musician, I can appreciate that kind of creativity. You're sensitive, but not overly so. And you've paid attention to me. I guess I'm being kinda selfish when I say that, right?"

"That's okay."

"It's that, I usually don't do so well one on one. I like crowds. I hit entertainer mode. I spin music. I sing. I play whatever instruments I can get my hands on. People seem to really love me when I do stuff like that."

"Well, you're really talented."

"I suppose. But then I meet someone face to face and it all falls apart. I can't, I can't keep it up. And I can't even tell anyone that, yet I'm telling you right now. I just _can_. I know you'll pay attention and you won't act like it's no big deal and I should just get over it or something."

"Yeah, I guess I will pay attention."

"Tell me about yourself," he said.

"You wanna hear boring stuff?" she asked, "Plus, I thought you'd wanna cut to the chase." She nodded a bit toward the pillows.

"Not that I don't wanna. Believe me, it is _so_ not that. But I do need to kinda keep myself calm for a while. Otherwise, I'm bound to finish before we've even started. I have no experience with this at all. And I can tell I'm overly worked up and all we're doing is just talking."

"I see. Have you kissed anyone before, er, today?"

"Yeah. Four others before you. One actually got as far as, uh, well, we were both naked. And then her father walked in."

"Gawd, I'm so removed from that."

"So, your life story?" he prompted.

"I was born in New Brasilia, on Callisto," she said, "I'm an only child. You're interested in this?"

"I _am_ ," he assured her, "I want to know you because I am kinda hoping that would mean we don't just do this today."

She kissed him. "I want you to understand something. Up until, well, pretty much just now, I didn't look at you in any manner that wasn't just friendly. Not that I didn't find you attractive; it's that I just didn't see it happening. So maybe let's not talk about later and stuff."

"See, I do this all the time," HD said.

"Do what?"

"Jump the gun."

An alarm went off. "Dammit," Sheilagh said, getting up. He put out a hand to stop her. "C'mon, I think at least I should see about turning that off if I can."

She walked back to the front of the ship. The display read _2083_. "HD, we gotta start spatially piloting!" she called to him.

"Uh, okay," he swore under his breath and thought about how dumb it had been of him to insist on engaging her in conversation. "She's right; I shoulda just cut to the chase," he whispered to himself.

=/\=

On the _Jack Finney_ , Dan piloted, and never took his eyes off either the controls or the display. All attempts by Polly to engage him in any sort of conversation were rebuffed.

She looked at him, "You're really affected by their deaths, eh?"

"Aren't _you_?"

"I am," she admitted, "but there's a difference between being affected due to proximity to a tragedy – that's me – versus being utterly personally affected. And that appears to be you."

"I just don't wanna make small talk after a thing like that has just happened," Dan bristled. He was still being a bit affected by the alcohol.

"Okay, so no small talk. How about big talk then, all right? Tell me how you're feeling, and why you think this is affecting you so."

"I don't understand why you or any of the others aren't affected," Dan said, a little pointedly, "The only person who showed any sort of emotion was Crystal."

"People react in all sorts of different ways," Polly explained, "and they process emotions such as grief at different paces. But while shock is understandable here, as is a bit of empathy, actual, full-blown mourning seems to be out of place."

"So you're saying my emotions are wrong?" he barked, "Rounding 2540."

"No," she replied cautiously, "instead, what I am saying is that it would be in a more appropriate realm if it was dialed back a bit. Feelings are feelings – despite what most Vulcans will tell you, they are generally valid – but what I am talking about is the depth and extent of reactions. The proportion seems off. That's telling me that there's something else there. Wanna talk about that different, hidden layer, the one deep down inside you?"

He sighed. She was right. He was, frankly, beginning to panic a bit. If Marisol's personal effects were discovered, there was a slender chance that he would be found out. But that chance fattened up like a turkey in November if _all_ of the clues were put together. "Not, uh, not now."

"All right", she said, "I can wait. Did, uh, did you read about the mission?"

"Sure, we gotta make sure Cramer dies on schedule. Yanno, I'm getting pretty sick of constantly assuring a bunch of deaths," he admitted.

"That part definitely gets old quickly," she said, "but we still have to do this. These are the cards we were dealt. At least Carmen and Deirdre are out _preventing_ deaths."

"Yeah, they're busy saving Borg. That's not exactly comforting."

=/\=

 _You can't sleep, you can't eat  
There's no doubt, you're in deep  
Your throat is tight, you can't breathe  
Another kiss is all you need  
_

– Robert Palmer (Addicted to Love)


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

 _Whoa, you like to think that you're immune to the stuff, oh yeah  
It's closer to the truth to say you can't get enough  
You know you're gonna have to face it, you're addicted to love  
_

– Robert Palmer (Addicted to Love)

=/\=

The engraving, such as it was, was finished by Malcolm and he and Lili waited. "I think the capital R is a little crooked," he said.

"It's fine. Don't worry. You're such a perfectionist."

"Well, I just want it to be right. Do you think Richard will understand what sort of a message we are sending?"

"I think it identifies time and place – at least on our side of the pond – pretty readily. And it's obscure enough that anyone who means him – or us – harm wouldn't immediately understand it. It's probably odd enough to draw him here."

As if he had heard her speaking, they saw and heard a ship in the sky above them. They walked to the side, near Joss's house. Joss had gone to work at the veterinary hospital, but Jia was home with Jay. She came out, holding him. "What's going on?"

"The stone," Lili explained, "it looks like someone took our bait."

"Hopefully, the right fish bit," Jia said, holding Jay a little closer.

"I hope so as well," Malcolm said to Lili quietly. He still had the hand phaser with him, and was still a decent shot, but his eyesight was failing a bit. He was none too comfortable with the idea of shooting someone, particularly in front of the baby, but if he had to defend them, he would. Even though he was no biological relation to Joss, he still felt a kinship. A stepson was as good as a son, so far as he was concerned. There was no _step_ involved – the prefix had no meaning to Malcolm.

They need not have worried. The ship landed, and the pilot was careful to not land on top of the garden. Lili smiled to herself. The last time Rick had come over; he had landed right on top of the day lilies and the asparagus. Then he had knelt over the patch and done something to the soil. She didn't know what. But afterwards whatever grew there was always incredibly resilient. She did not know that it was Stem Cell Growth Accelerator, which was a substance added to his blood that made his body repair itself considerably faster than normal. The substance, in the soil, also affected the plants, so they survived and grew and even thrived. The asparagus eaten at the Temporal Museum in 3110 was a descendant of the plants right before them.

What Lili also did not know was that Norri and Melissa had added a little of that soil to where they'd planted the tofflin root on her own property. They had just thought it was particularly good, rich soil, nothing more.

The time ship landed and out stepped Rick, with a young man with a military bearing. They came over to her. "I see you got the message," Lili said, hugging Rick. "Who's your friend?"

"I'm Thomas Grant, ma'am. I am glad to know you. Your, uh, I've read about you."

"Me?" Lili asked, taken aback. "Read what?"

"Stuff," Rick said, "things we can't go into. Gotta protect the timeline and all. Suffice it to say, you're in the first pioneering family and we come from nine hundred plus years later, so there are books written and all." He didn't mention that the first – and it was considered to be the most authoritative title – one was a book by Norri, _The Human Pioneers of Lafa II_.

"Got it. Mysterious, magical things that I'm not supposed to know about," Lili said, smiling and introducing Tom to Malcolm. "Tom, you look a little like Tommy. I, uh, I never know what to call him. Stepson?"

"Stepson would imply that Melissa and Douglas were married at one point," Malcolm pointed out, "Then again, most of the time I call Joss my son and Jia my daughter-in-law. It seems rather foolish to stand on ceremony like that."

"In any event," Lili said, "Tommy is pretty similar in look to you."

"Well, I'm a desc –" Tom started to say.

He was interrupted when Melissa and Norri came over from the Reed home to investigate. "You remember us?" Melissa asked Rick.

"Sure I do," he replied, "for me, it's been around a year and a half. But for you, it's, what, three and a half decades, am I right?"

"Something like that," Norri said, "I guess the message was effective."

"Definitely," Rick said. He then turned his attention to Malcolm. "Now we need to destroy the extra headstone."

"But why?" Jia asked, shifting little Jay in her arms.

"We don't want anyone else getting the message," Tom said.

"But won't you forget it, or disappear or something?" Melissa asked, "You wouldn't have any reason to be here."

"We'll be fine. We're protected by a field that essentially keeps us outside of time," Rick explained.

"Hasn't that been breached?" Tom asked. "Remember what happened to Deirdre."

"Huh," Rick thought for a moment. "I still think it's a good idea to destroy it. If you and I forget, or if we're whisked back, someone here should remember. And even if _they_ forget, they'll then try to get our attention some other way."

"We should take that stone out of the ground and put it somewhere else before destroying it," Lili said, "I don't want a phaser blast to accidentally scorch Doug's stone, or Kevin's."

"Understood. Tom, help me with this," Rick said. As they worked to move the heavy stone, Rick ended up removing his shirt, as did Tom. And that's when they spotted them.

Rick was wearing an old-fashioned skeleton key charm on a chain around his neck, along with a Xindi initiation medal. Tom had a metallic cuff on his left wrist. Both were made of a dull grey metal, a Calafan alloy.

Lili came over. "Uh, excuse me, but I think you have something of mine," she said to Rick. She pulled out a thin chain within her blouse, which had the selfsame key charm on it.

"And you have something of mine," Malcolm said, rolling up his left sleeve to show the same cuff that Tom was wearing.

"They must be your descendants," Norri said, "Unless those are duplicates pieces of jewelry."

"They aren't," Rick said, "and we shouldn't let them touch, or temporal integration will occur."

"Temporal integration?" asked Melissa.

"The two items merge," Tom said, "I'd lose my cuff, and Eleanor would be mighty disappointed."

"Eleanor?" Norri asked.

"My girl – she is also his sister," Tom indicated Rick.

"Ah," Malcolm said, "you do realize these pieces have very strong meanings for us."

"I do," Rick said, "I look at the inscription from time to time."

Malcolm smiled a little at that, "It's just a bit of doggerel."

"It's beautiful," Lili said.

Melissa put a hand up to shield her face from the four suns, "We might wanna get this done soon, folks." Her sleeve slipped, and you could see that she was wearing a thin bracelet with an oval charm. Inside the oval were three concentric circles. The piece was made of the same material as the other two pieces.

"Melissa," Tom said, "I do believe you are my forebear."

"I am?"

"Your bracelet. My mother owns it."

"Then I'm glad that it's the two of you who are here," Lili said, "You're family. We, uh, we won't tell anyone, right?" The other four nodded. "Let's get that stone destroyed, and then come in, I guess into Joss's house – is that okay, Jia?"

" _Mi casa, su casa_ ," she said.

"Thank you," Lili said, "we'll sit and we'll talk about what the message means, and why we sent it."

=/\=

 _You see the signs, but you can't read  
You're runnin' at, a different speed  
You heart beats, in double time  
Another kiss, and you'll be mine a one track mind  
_

– Robert Palmer (Addicted to Love)


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

 _You can't be saved  
Oblivion is all you crave  
If there's some left for you  
You don't mind if you do  
_

– Robert Palmer (Addicted to Love)

=/\=

" **Y'know, you're like a starving man," Empress Hoshi said to Milton Walker. They were in her Ready Room. The cot had been upended in their frenzy. She slowly began the somewhat complex process of getting dressed again.**

" **Well, as I had mentioned, it has been a while," he replied, "in the Eligian Order, I was not permitted to so much as touch a woman, you see."**

" **But I bet you touched a few men, eh?"**

 **He was about to answer her when there was a Communications chime. "What now?" Hoshi whined, answering it.**

" **Ma, we're picking up energy readings from the most remote planet in the Lafa System. I think that's the one called, uh, Kira, do you know this?" Jun asked.**

" **It's Lafa V," Kira said, "here they don't number based on distance from a central star because two of the four stars have their own planetary systems. So they do it by planet size."**

" **Yeah, yeah, c'mon," Hoshi tried to hustle them along, "can we catch a point somewhere in here?"**

" **Sorry, Ma," Kira said, "we got serious readings. It's heavy industry."**

" **But didn't we already know about that?" she complained, "Sheesh, do I hafta do Tactical, too?"**

" **No, 'course not," Kira backpedaled a bit. "It's just, if they're manufacturing starship parts, I gotta figure it's all happening there."**

" **What do the natives claim is being made there?" Milton asked, pulling his pants back on. Hoshi glared at him. That was not his place. He did not seem to notice her growing wrath.**

" **They say it's for metal jewelry-making," Jun said, after checking a record.**

" **Not a chance," Hoshi said, "that's a front."**

=/\=

They were sitting in Joss's living room, having coffee and tea. Jia was busy putting the baby down for a nap. Rick said, "So tell me why I'm here. Other than for a nice visit, of course."

"We saw a time ship," Lili said, "it opened up, what would you call it, Malcolm?"

"Some sort of a portal, I suppose."

"A portal, then, and I'm sure it was to the mirror. The whole atmosphere just got charged and weird. Then the ship slipped through and the portal slammed shut behind it. Since the ship looked a lot like the _Wells_ , we figured we'd have to let you know somehow."

"What was the name of this ship?" Tom asked.

"It looked like _X-Cap_. Can that possibly be right?" Lili asked.

"The _Flux Capacitor_ ," Rick said.

"Possibly," Malcolm allowed.

"Definitely," Tom said.

"That ship was stolen," Rick said, "and I guess now we know where it was taken."

"Do you think they knew, uh," Lili's voice trailed off.

"About me not being able to go to the mirror during this time period?" Rick asked. "It's okay, Tom knows. And, yeah, you all do."

"You told us back when, well, I was barely pregnant with Declan. Melissa was barely pregnant with Neil. Now they're in their thirties."

"I wasn't pregnant with anyone," Norri joked.

"No, but you were infinitely patient, thank God!" Melissa said.

"You were talking about theft," Malcolm said, steering the conversation back.

"Yes," Rick said, "there's a faction looking to, well, they think they're perfecting time, but the reality is that they're just messing around. Everything they do seems to have serious negative consequences. We keep putting it back, and they keep tearing it down."

"Why would they take a ship? I assume they had some other means of time traveling otherwise, right?" Norri asked.

"They did, but we don't know what it was," Tom said, "But ya'll need a time ship in order to go to the mirror."

"So for some reason they want the mirror," Malcolm mused.

"It might just be for the purposes of escape," Rick said, "their hiding place was found out. I bet they have more than one hiding place, the Perfectionists. Such an absurd name for a, argh, they're like bulls in a china shop."

"So this group is clumsily trying to, somehow, repair time?" Malcolm inquired.

"That's about the size of it," Rick said.

"What do they consider to be improvements?" Lili asked, "Do they want Hitler to win, or something like that?"

"Actually," Tom said, "it's the opposite. At least, that's what I've observed so far. They try to save the good guys. They try to _be_ the good guys. But that turns everything on its head. They tried to save an Arab leader named Anwar Sadat, and instead they ended up destroying Islam and creating a huge theocracy in our time period."

"Destroying Islam? That's no good", Norri said.

"And the rest of it," Melissa added, "it's like it's calculated to make you feel as guilty as possible."

"And then you'll embrace their cause," added Malcolm, "instead of restoring the proper timeline, like I imagine you're supposed to."

Rick sat there, lost in thought for a moment. "Richard, are you all right?" Lili asked.

"I, uh, just figuring something out. Um, Tom, we need to start determining what you'll be doing in the mirror."

"Assuming they _don't_ know about your restrictions," Malcolm said, "why would they have cause to go to the mirror, and in this particular year?"

"They wouldn't," Tom said, "at least, I don't think so. There's no really significant events I can think of."

Rick checked his PADD. "Actually, that's not strictly true. The Empress discovers a manufacturing plant for Constitution class starship parts. It takes a while – the parts aren't perfect – but it's a threat to her, as the _Defiant_ stops being unique, and she loses her tactical edge."

"The _Defiant_ is still around?" Melissa asked, "Doug was on it over thirty years ago."

"It's the same ship," Tom said, "light years ahead of the rest, even when it's not running optimally. Ya'll can see why she wanted to retain the exclusive."

=/\=

" **Maneuver over the north pole of that planet, what did you call it, again?" Hoshi asked.**

" **Lafa V," Jun said.**

" **Right. Let's start taking scans. Anything, anywhere."**

" **That'll take forever," Milton complained, "how about just checking for any sort of heavy industry?"**

" **Concentrate on heavy industry," Hoshi said, annoyedly, "let's talk." She grabbed Milton by the collar and threw him back in the Ready Room.**

 **He approached her. "Empress, I am not so sure I can perform again, quite so quickly."**

" **We're not here for that," she snarled. "You will never openly contradict me again. Clear?"**

" **Sorry, Empress. Lost my head there for a second." Milton glanced around the Ready Room. He had no friends on the Defiant – Hoshi was anything but a pal – and, while he knew he would be able to get back to his own universe in the Flux Capacitor, he was also painfully aware that Fluxy was being watched 24/7. There was nowhere to go, no one to confide in and nothing he could do about any of it. He had gone to the mirror in order to avoid being sent to the notorious Gemara Prison on Berren Five.**

 **And now Gemara was beginning to look like a walk in the park compared to where he currently found himself.**

=/\=

 _Whoa, you like to think that you're immune to the stuff, oh yeah  
It's closer to the truth to say you can't get enough  
You know you're gonna have to face it, you're addicted to love  
_

– Robert Palmer (Addicted to Love)


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

 _Might as well face it, you're addicted to love  
Might as well face it, you're addicted to love  
Might as well face it, you're addicted to love  
Might as well face it, you're addicted to love  
Might as well face it, you're addicted to love  
Might as well face it, you're addicted to love  
Might as well face it, you're addicted to love  
Might as well face it, you're addicted to love  
_

– Robert Palmer (Addicted to Love)

=/\=

They beamed down near a PX in Saigon and walked in. A bored-looking Asian hostess looked them over. "Sit anywhere," she said.

There was a pinup calendar on the wall – Bettie Page – Dan looked it over. It was turned to October of 1957, an image of Bettie, in lingerie, being spanked by a blonde, also in lingerie. The blonde appeared to be carefully concentrating on what she was doing.

The first twenty days of that month's page were ticked off. The hostess turned on a radio and toured around the dial until she was able to get a Hong Kong station. It was an acoustic duet, two young fellows singing –

 _Wake up, little Susie, wake up  
Wake up, little Susie, wake up  
the movie wasn't so hot  
It didn't have much of a plot  
we fell asleep, our goose is cooked  
our reputation is shot_

Polly went over to the bar. "What'll it be?" asked the hostess.

Polly adjusted her nurse's uniform. "Just coffee, thanks."

The hostess frowned, but poured. The tips for pouring coffee were a lot less generous than those for pouring whiskey.

A man walked in, lean and tall, with captain's bars on his uniform. "Usual", was all he said.

The hostess got him a bottle of German beer and opened it. He took it from her and approached the table where Polly was sitting. "New in town?"

She nodded and glanced over at Dan, who came over. Dan was wearing a uniform with sergeant's stripes. The stranger outranked him. "I was just deployed today, myself," Dan said, and then introduced both of them.

"Hank Cramer," said the stranger, "I could give you a tour, Nurse Porter."

"Perhaps," she said, and then added, "Got the time?"

"Nineteen hundred hours," Cramer said, reading off a beaten up wristwatch with a scratched metal band. He took out two cigarettes. "Nurse Porter?"

"Uh, sure," Polly said, getting up. She had never smoked a day in her life, and wasn't about to start. But she also knew that the end was near for one Hank Cramer. He would be picked off by a sniper while having a smoke, in less than five minutes. All she had to do was duck.

=/\=

In 2063, Deirdre and Carmen were bundled against the cold. "Dammit, this is horrible!" Carmen danced around, teeth chattering. What she wouldn't give for a nip of something, anything.

"It's the North Pole, gawd," Deirdre replied.

There was a whistling sound, and a fireball erupted in midair. They leapt behind a snow bank in time to hear a loud crash, complete with whining, scraping metal.

Once it appeared that the whining and scraping had ceased, they both got up and ran over. "That's the Borg sphere," Deirdre said.

Carmen ran a scanner along it, "Two barely registering life forms. They register more like mechanical signatures, truth be told."

"Yeah, the scanners of the time aren't good enough to detect the barest sparks of life those two drones are giving off," Deirdre agreed, "and then they end up assimilating a few folk in the 2150s. It isn't until then that people start to take Zefrem Cochrane seriously. He mentions, a few days from now, actually, that there are threats and people just think he's been pounding back a few. But I guess the changes that were made; they must prove that the Borg have a bit of a place in our true, original history."

"Just like everyone, and everything else," Carmen said, "you can't deny them their place; you'll end up throwing out the Picards and the Kirks and the Janeways and the Maddens – all of those babies, and sometimes rather literally – out with the Borg bath water."

"What should we be checking for?" Deirdre asked.

"Well, my understanding is that the original history was changed when someone came in and finished the job. That is, they finished off those two barely surviving drones."

"But that was one version, right? So do you think that person would come back, in a second iteration?"

"Huh," Carmen thought for a moment, "perhaps not. We can go to March of 2153 and eavesdrop on Jonathan Archer. That should confirm things, one way or the other. Let's go; I'm freezing my arse off."

=/\=

 **Hoshi called a meeting of the senior staff. "Wait here," she said to Milton. They were still in her Ready Room.**

" **But I'd like to come with you," he whined a little. He did have the good sense to realize that if she was talking about him behind his back, it could not be to the good.**

" **I know," she kissed him, playful again. Her emotions seemed to turn on a dime. "But you need to," she grabbed at him a little bit, "save your strength."**

" **All right," he said, but his eyes betrayed his uneasiness.**

 **Hoshi hustled herself over to the main conference room. "All right, people, listen up!" she barked, "I want some fast work done."**

" **Understood," Jun said, speaking for the rest of them.**

" **That time ship – I want you to learn everything you can about it, Kira and Frank."**

" **I'm on it," Frank said. That, at least, was a relatively cushy assignment. All he really needed to do was find one thing and she would likely be satisfied. All he had to do was convince Kira when to stop looking.**

" **I need to know how it works. So don't break anything," she snarled at Frank, "When you figure out its propulsion system, get Shelby in and teach it to her. See if she can figure out its idiosyncrasies. For scientific data it might collect, work together and determine what the hell its readings are."**

" **Got it, Ma," Kira confirmed.**

 **Hoshi said, "If you find any information on weapons or defense, bring in Aidan to figure it out and get the nuances down pat. For Communications, contact Jun, of course."**

" **I'll be ready, Ma."**

" **Izo," Hoshi said, "You'll find out how to work it. Get Walker into the booth if you have to. I doubt he's had any sort of training against torture. He should break easily, spill it all and cry like a baby while he's at it. Try not to kill him."**

" **But Ma!" Izo seemed disappointed.**

" **You or I will take care of that later, I promise," Hoshi said, "Arashi, when we start figuring out the components, start estimating how much it'll cost to buy any raw materials we can't just steal. I don't love trading with the Klingons but we might have to do that."**

" **Sure, Ma."**

" **And me?" Mark asked.**

" **Start making me hyposprays and start hiding them around the ship, starting with my quarters, the Ready Room and even under the captain's chair. Give me a schematic, a map, showing where any of them are. Give a copy to Izo, too."**

" **What are these hyposprays supposed to do?"**

" **Knock out a horse."**

=/\=

 _You're addicted to love, you're addicted to love  
Might as well face it, you're addicted to love  
Might as well face it, you're addicted to love  
Might as well face it, might as well face it  
Might as well face it, might as well face it  
Might as well face it, you're addicted to love  
Might as well face it, you're addicted to love  
_

– Robert Palmer (Addicted to Love)


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

 _Your lights are on, but you're not home  
Your will is not your own  
You're heart sweats and teeth grind  
Another kiss and you'll be mine  
_

– Robert Palmer (Addicted to Love)

=/\=

"What's the plan?" HD asked Sheilagh. They were on Cape Canaveral on January twenty-seventh of 1986 – the day before the _Challenger_ disaster.

"Well, we know that the launch just plain didn't happen in the altered reality," she said, "plus we know it happened because of a computer lockout."

"Yeah, NASA couldn't launch the _Challenger_ as planned," HD confirmed by surreptitiously checking a PADD. "The delay gave them the idea to check the shuttle one last time, and the inspection crew found a cracked O-ring. They aborted that particular mission, and then they checked the entire fleet."

"Right. They congratulated themselves on having dodged a bullet and then they were flying again once everything was fixed. They got back to flying considerably faster than in the original history – they even fixed the foam issue that did in the _Columbia_ a few years later. So they were all set when the Trill came knocking, as it were, less than six months later."

"First Contact went off without a hitch, except that Earth became a subordinate power, struggling to keep up. There's no World War III, surprise, surprise!" HD smiled, "This was definitely a mixed bag – a Federation was still founded. Er, it looks like they called it the Congress of Planets. Earth wasn't a founding member. It was Tandar Prime, Andoria, Betazed and Ferenginar."

"I can imagine how it turned out," Sheilagh said, "So let's talk strategy. We need to get in, and I need to lift the computer lockout. This is before Wi-Fi so I need to, physically, be inside the complex. Fortunately, this is pre-9/11, so security is a lot looser. Anyway, I think that's about it."

"Sounds easy enough," HD said.

"I even made us ID badges."

"Badges! Badges! We don't need no –" HD looked sheepishly at a confused Sheilagh, "uh, sorry, I forget not everyone likes old movies."

"Why don't we watch it together when we're done?" she asked. "But first, let's focus."

"Right," he said. Inwardly, he was ecstatic. They were still on.

=/\=

In 1957, there was a shot. Polly barely had a moment to duck. Cramer crumpled in front of her. Dan ran out to see, as did the bar hostess. Polly cradled Cramer's head in her hands. "Can you do anything?" asked the bar hostess, a little panicky.

Polly just shook her head. There were more shots, whistling around then. The bar hostess ran back into the building. Cramer looked up at Polly. "Don't worry," she said, "I know it doesn't look good. It isn't good, except you should know, Hank, that with your death, you help to save the future."

"Future?" he asked weakly.

"Yes," Polly said, "you're helping to make it work out right again."

"Good," he said, "at least there's a meaning. Thank you for," he gasped, "for telling me." His head lolled to the side and he was gone.

Polly and Dan did not stand up, as bullets were still flying. He engaged his implanted Communicator and voice commanded the _Audrey II_ to beam them both up.

Once they had materialized on board the ship, he said, "I guess we should confirm this, right?"

"Right," she said absently. She flew them to May of 1975 and they checked broadcasts. Sure enough, there were numerous broadcasts and commentaries about the fall of Saigon, "Looks like we're good to go," she said, "Could you start the flight? I, uh," she gestured at her nurse's uniform, which had Cramer's blood on it, "I need to change."

"Of course," he said, "but answer me one thing."

"Sure."

"Why did you tell him he had helped out the future?" Dan asked. "He didn't know that in the original history."

"Well, of course he didn't," she said, "but it's purely otric – no change to the timeline is even possible, when it's someone right on their deathbed, and there are no present day witnesses, right? So if I could provide a little comfort to the man, I was going to do so. Now, if you'll excuse me." She hustled herself off to the little bathroom in the back and he was left alone with his thoughts.

"Comforting some guy you just met," he said quietly to himself, "Either you are compassionate or you're foolish, Polly Porter."

And in the shower, as she stripped off the day's events and thought about the man she'd just seen killed, Polly thought to herself, _if I can provide meaning – even just a smidgen of it – to someone like that, where the end is near and it's hopeless and I have to make sure that it stays hopeless, well, whenever I get a chance to do something like that, I'm going to take it._

=/\=

"Ready to go?" Rick asked Tom.

"Sure. We'll do as you suggested. You'll pilot the _Wells_ , and fire a pulse shot near the amplifier dishes over there on Point Abic. I'll hike over there with Malcolm here and hop over to the other side before the opening shuts. You'll land here and stay here until you get the temporal flare signal from me," he held up what looked like a black Christmas cracker, "or I'll just show up in _Fluxy_. Either way, it'll be time to go. If y'all don't hear from me within five days, leave without me."

"And if you're done early, you'll stay for our anniversary, won't you?" Lili asked.

"You sure you don't wanna be alone?" Rick asked.

"I didn't say you were invited to stay _all_ day long, Richard," she said, smiling.

"Then we're off," Malcolm said, kissing Lili, "I shall return before you even know I am gone. Uh, give us perhaps fifteen minutes before taking off. I don't move quite as quickly as I used to."

"Sure thing," Rick said, standing with Melissa and Norri.

=/\=

They had been walking for a little while when Malcolm said to Tom, "Might I inquire something of you?"

"Of course."

"The cuff," Malcolm said, hitching his left sleeve up slightly in order to show off his own, older iteration of it, "under what circumstances did you get it?"

"I got it from Rick's sister, Eleanor," Tom explained, "she, uh, she told me that she was only supposed to give it to her true love."

Malcolm stopped walking for a moment. "Oh, that's lovely," he said, "Lili gave it to me the first time she ever told me that she loved me. Of course, she was married to Douglas at the time. I was not then, and I never have been, her _one_ true love. But I like to think that, perhaps, I am the second of two."

"I'm sure y'all are. She adores you; it's obvious."

"Are you marrying this, this Eleanor?" Malcolm asked, "Oh, I do not mean to pry."

"It's all right. I'm getting up my nerve and trying to figure out how I'm going to propose. I want the conditions to be perfect."

"Then you'll never do it," Malcolm said, "trust me, lad, it does not need to be perfect. It just needs to happen. Oh! We have arrived already."

=/\=

Lili looked at Rick, "How'd you get the key charm?"

"I was given it when I was five, by my parents. I was told to only give it to someone really special, to my true love."

"So you haven't met that – woman – man, perhaps – yet?" Norri asked.

"Woman," he said, "and, uh, I think maybe I have. But it can't happen."

"Why not?"

"Because she died in 1969, Lili."

Lili thought for a moment. "Did you tell her you love her?"

"No, I didn't. I told her she was different, but not that I, that I loved her." He hadn't said that aloud before. It felt strange to say it, but it felt correct.

"Can't you go, maybe, to her death bed at least, and tell her? What is her name, anyway?" Melissa asked.

"Milena Chelenska."

"Just say, ' _Milena, I love you_ ,'. And I cannot promise it'll be enough for either of you, but at least you will have said it," Lili stated, tapping a finger on her version of the key charm.

=/\=

 _Whoa, you like to think that you're immune to the stuff, oh yeah  
It's closer to the truth to say you can't get enough  
You know you're gonna have to face it, you're addicted to love_

– Robert Palmer (Addicted to Love)


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

 _Might as well face it, you're addicted to love  
Might as well face it, you're addicted to love  
Might as well face it, you're addicted to love  
Might as well face it, you're addicted to love  
Might as well face it, you're addicted to love  
Might as well face it, you're addicted to love  
Might as well face it, you're addicted to love  
Might as well face it, you're addicted to love  
Might as well face it  
Might as well face it, you're addicted to love  
Might as well face it, might as well face it  
Might as well face it  
Might as well face it, you're addicted to love  
Might as well face it, you're addicted to love_

– Robert Palmer (Addicted to Love)

=/\=

In 3110, an engineer made a call. "Enid Milton, on Callisto." That was the alias that Helen Walker had been using ever since her faked death.

"Speaking," she said, and then realized who it was. "You should not be contacting me directly. You need to be in a secure location."

"I am well aware of our protocols," said the engineer, "but I assure you that no one is listening in."

"All right, what do ya'll have for me?"

"Castillo and Yarin are dead, a murder-suicide. Her murder by him, and then his suicide."

"I see," she said, "has anything about us been revealed?"

"Not much, so far as I am aware. The area is in lockdown – anywhere Castillo lived or spent any time is going to be searched by Section 31," said the engineer.

"Can you get into any of it?"

"Not without rousing some suspicion. I did see that they had to send out all four remaining time ships. And Beauchaine was not one of those assigned to the _Audrey II_."

"Damn, I was hoping he'd be able to suppress or alter anything incriminating in there, at least. I do hope he realizes to get back as soon as possible."

"There is also a big thing coming up. A species is supposed to be on its way from Triangulum."

" _Triangulum_?"

"Yes. And they use a species of temporal displacement drive, coupled with making near-constant iterations of themselves."

"The perfect army," she said, "it has the potential to be near-infinite cloning – and without having to involve a medical professional at all – if done right. And if the soldier is becoming too old, a little temporal integration will set that right. Just have the two versions merge by touching and you end up with a younger version with the older one's memories and knowledge."

"The Zetal in Andromeda claim that the Varg-i-yeh are out to conquer all of the galaxies in the Local Group. They've already got Triangulum and Andromeda."

"If they like time travel so much," Helen said, "I bet we could work a bit together. They do their conquering – whatever they like, actually. All we need to do is keep a step ahead, and go back, either to make changes for our own purposes or, if necessary, to undo whatever they may damage. And not only will the Temporal Integrity Commission have their hands full, but so will Section 31, and the Federation, and anyone else who might have any issues with all that we are attempting to accomplish."

"Possibly," the engineer allowed, "but it's also rather risky."

"Life is risk," she said, "tell me when they get near you. Walker – I mean Milton – out."

What the engineer did not know was that Kevin had taken a break from giving Branch a thoroughly unnecessary tour of the Temporal Integrity Commission. Bored, Branch had thinned to the depth of a coat of paint, and mimicked the color in the engineer's office exactly. It only looked like another coat of paint, barely even noticeable, as it was a mere micron or so thick.

And so there had been a witness – several, if you want to get technical – to the engineer's conversation with Helen Walker.

=/\=

The Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral was a huge complex, but all they really needed was an out of the way computer terminal. They found a room marked _Meteorology_ in one of the more remote buildings. The door was locked.

"Allow me," HD said. He produced a hand phaser and shot, using the lowest setting. The lock melted very, very slightly – just enough to get the internal tumblers to move and fall. He gently turned the knob and the door opened.

They walked in and he shut the door behind them. "Where'd you learn to do that?" Sheilagh asked.

"Music school," he replied, "I knew guys who also did magic tricks on the side, kinda hedging their bets if music didn't work out."

"Very nice," she said, and sat down in front of the room's only terminal. She ran her hands just over the keyboard, very lightly.

"What are you doing?"

"See the keys that are slightly more worn down than the others? Plus most of those have a little more, well, it's oil, really, on them. It's a bit of fingertip sweat, kinda. The letters with the most oil on them are, uh, A, M, T and R. And here on the keypad, the numbers with the most wear and sweat are five and seven."

"So?"

"So that means that the password is most likely some combination of those letters and numbers." She started typing. _Tram75_ did not work; neither did _Marta57_.

"I bet this picture is of the guy's kid," HD indicated a photograph of a little girl, about nine years old or so.

"Ha! I bet that her birth year is at least a part of the combination. And I bet that's either '75 or '77." She typed some more. Finally, _TAMARA5775_ worked. "So you're a Taurus, Tamara."

=/\=

"Okay, they're there," Rick said, in 2192, tapping his left ear to close the Communicator link. "I'll be right back."

He took off, and Melissa looked at Lili. "I trust him. And I want to trust that guy Tom. I just, I dunno, I get the feeling that time is really being messed with. Despite the fact that he's allegedly a descendant."

"Well, maybe time is being messed with, but not by him, Mellie," Norri said, "Y'know, if he is a descendant, do you think he's from our Tommy, or from Neil?"

"Well, Neil's already got a baby, Jenny Lee," Melissa said, "And our Tommy, well, he doesn't look like he'll ever find someone, male or female." She sighed. "I just want him to be happy."

"You worry about him like I worry about Declan," Lili said, "but I get the feeling that things will work out. After all, for Doug, and for Malcolm, and for me, we just took longer than most people."

Jia came out again. "I just heard from Joss. He'll be home soon. Stay for dinner if you like. Rick, too, when he gets back."

"Thank you," Norri said, "I think I can speak for all of us when I say that you, and Yinora and Ines are like three more daughters for all of us."

"Thank you. Y'know, it's amazing to see Rick Daniels, and then I look at little Jay and there is a tiny resemblance. Think we're related?"

"I can't say," Lili said, inwardly smiling.

=/\=

 _All the old paintings on the tomb  
they do the sand dance, dontcha know?  
If they move too quick (Oh-Way-Oh)  
they're falling down like a domino  
_

– The Bangles (Walk Like an Egyptian)


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

 _And the bazaar man by the Nile  
He got the money on a bet  
Gold crocodiles (Oh-Way-Oh)  
They snap their teeth on a cigarette  
_

– The Bangles (Walk Like an Egyptian)

=/\=

In March first of 2153, Deirdre and Carmen beamed on board the _NX-01_ and hid in the bathroom of the captain's Ready Room. They could hear Jonathan Archer dictating.

" _Captain's star log, supplemental. The more I think about what has happened, the more I wonder if, rather than dodging a bullet, we just put off the wound. A message was sent by that, that, I don't know what you would call it. A ship, I guess, but it's unlike any ship I've ever known. But that message went out to the Delta Quadrant, according to T'Pol. By the time it's received, and the recipients come to us, it'll be another two hundred or so years. Have we condemned the mid twenty-fourth century? I worry that we have done just that."_

He stopped to pet Porthos, his beagle, and then continued.

" _As for the species, I'm not so sure you can call them a species, either. They are several species, cobbled together with some cybernetic implants, what Doctor Phlox described as thousands – perhaps millions – of voices, a chorus of hell, and, uh …"_ His voice trailed off as he noticed Porthos standing up and taking notice.

Porthos began growling at the bathroom door, smelling unfamiliar smells and hearing unfamiliar voices even though they were barely above a whisper. "Porthos?" Jonathan asked. "Do we have company, perhaps?"

"That's our cue," Carmen whispered. Deirdre hit the Transporter remote control and they beamed back to the _Audrey Niffenegger_ just as Captain Archer was opening the door to the little bathroom.

=/\=

In 1986, Sheilagh clicked around. "Lockouts, lockouts, hmm, security protocols are pretty standard for the time. Our guy – uh, I guess we can call him Tamara's Dad – he has mid-level clearance."

"Is that good?" HD asked.

"I'll see if I can get root access." She brought up a DOS prompt and started typing in commands. "Okay, uh, root directory, C, uh, forward slash, huh, there's a security folder."

"Can you get into it?"

"Just a sec, uh, admin, pass, um, huh, if you were in NASA security in 1986, whaddaya think would be the password?" she asked.

"Isn't it Tamara-something or other?"

"That's just to get into this guy's account. The admin panel that controls security is under some other password. And this guy in Meteorology is obviously not the security sys admin."

"What are the names of the space shuttles?" HD asked.

"Uh, _Columbia, Endeavor, Discovery, Atlantis, Challenger_ and there's one that was just a prototype."

"What was that last one called?"

" _Enterprise_."

"Heh, well I'll be damned," he said, "Maybe it's that one?"

And so it was.

=/\=

Once Tom had hopped over to the mirror side of things, the door between the two universes slammed shut as Malcolm watched. Rick then landed the _Wells_ nearby. "Need a lift?"

"Yes, that would be helpful," he said, and boarded the time ship, "I don't suppose you can tell me a thing about your ship."

"Sorry, but I can't," Rick said.

"It's all right. Just need to know that it works," Malcolm said, "Do you, uh, do you know that that chap Thomas is considering how to propose to your sister?"

"I kinda suspected that," Rick said, smiling. "I like him."

"That's good. I'm always so thrilled with how well Lili gets on with my sister, Madeline. I know you can't answer this, but I shall tell you, I wish to believe that the fact that your sister Eleanor owned my cuff, and that you own Lili's key, is some sort of evidence that it's not just Neil and Joss who have descendants, but that my son, Declan, does as well."

"I can't say," Rick said, but that was definitely a correct assumption on Malcolm's part.

=/\=

Kevin, in 3110, bellowed at the top of his lungs, " _Branch_!"

The colony alien recognized the sequence of sounds and slithered along the turncoat engineer's wall. The engineer got up, not seeing the colony alien, and opened the door. The colony alien slid out. In a nearby alcove, the colony alien resumed human form again, once again appearing like Deirdre Katzman's first boyfriend, and walked over to Kevin's office, as if nothing had happened.

=/\=

"All right," Sheilagh said in 1986, "security override is in place. The lockout codes are erased. NASA should be able to get in with no trouble and launch tomorrow."

"So we'll beam back up to the _Audrey II_ and then check the news tomorrow?" HD asked.

"Sounds good to me. But first, uh, we're not too far from Miami."

"And …?"

"And it could be fun. Let's go out," she said, "unless you don't like music and dancing."

"Very funny. This is after disco and punk, and before grunge."

"Are you speaking English, HD?"

"Er, kinda. Anyway, let's beam outta here and give Tamara's Dad back his computer."

=/\=

The flight back from 1957 was a fairly quick one. Polly stared at the control panel as Dan flew, watching the year on the display as it flipped past 2011 and beyond. "I'm tired," she finally said, "tired of letting people die. I don't know how Rick does it."

"He, uh, I guess he tries to cope. It's, uh, it's distasteful a lotta the time."

"Well, the alternative is worse," she said, "I mean, I think the whole idea of trying to somehow ' _fix'_ time is a complete nonstarter. Even if it didn't mess anything up, I figure it would still be wrong. We, uh, as a species, we didn't get as far as we did by having things just handed to us. We worked for those things. We sweated to develop agriculture and tame fire and invent writing and take to the stars. I trust our ancestors. I'm not going to patronize them by claiming I'm somehow better than them. I am not superior to them, not by any stretch. And I think it's a dandy species of arrogance for anyone to behave as if they are."

She walked away, to the bedroom, and lay down. Dan did not join her. He just kept flying the time ship and then got an idea – it had been kicking around for a while, but it was getting to be a more insistent idea. He threw the ship into auto and fired up his PADD, and began to type.

=/\=

 _Foreign types with their hookah pipes sing:  
Way-oh-way-oh-way-ooh-ah-ooh...  
Walk like an Egyptian._

 _The blonde waitresses take their trays  
Spin around and they cross the floor.  
They've got the moves (Oh-Way-Oh)  
You drop your drink then they bring you more  
_

– The Bangles (Walk Like an Egyptian)


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

 _All the school kids so sick of books  
They like the punk and the metal band  
When the buzzer rings (Oh-Way-Oh)  
They're walking like an Egyptian_

 _All the kids in the marketplace say:  
Way-oh-way-oh-way-ooh-ah-ooh...  
Walk like an Egyptian.  
_

– The Bangles (Walk Like an Egyptian)

=/\=

There were loud bonging sounds throughout the Temporal Integrity Commission's Human Unit's offices. "What does that noise mean?" Branch asked.

"It's temporal restorations. So we've got a few so far. That's good," Kevin replied.

"Is it completed?"

"Nope," Kevin said, checking a PADD, "we've still got Trill First Contact in 1986. That part is _totally_ wrong. But it looks like the Vietnam War ends on time, and it's not in 1997. It's 1975, like it's supposed to be, and Bangkok never gets nuked."

"Will the others return soon?"

"Definitely – at least Polly and Dan will. In the meantime, let's talk about you," Kevin said.

"Us?"

"Uh, yeah. And the Varg-i-yeh as well."

=/\=

It could not yet be seen, not even with the most powerful of telescopes, but the Varg-i-yeh were making good time during their trip to the Milky Way galaxy.

They would get ahead of themselves, temporally integrate, then travel in time again, and then temporally reintegrate, and so forth. It was not a particularly efficient process, but it was a rather rapid one, considering the number of light years that had to be covered.

New worlds to conquer and new species to subjugate! Those were the motivations for the Varg-i-yeh.

The Varg-i-yeh wanted nothing more than to be at their destination. Covering vast distances was a bore and a chore but at least they were getting somewhere.

=/\=

 **On the other side of the pond, in 2192, Tom stepped into a universe in a perpetual minor key. It always felt strange there. Bad mojo, Rick would have called it.**

 **On that side, there were no Beckett or Reed houses, and no headstones, at least none devoted to Doug Beckett – as he was already on our side of things – or Kevin Madden-Beckett – as he had not had a mirror counterpart.**

 **Figures emerged from the shadows around him. "You got a lotta explainin' to do," said a man's voice with a Northern Florida accent. Tom guessed – rightly so, it turned out – that that was Tripp Tucker, a name he knew from history as being one of the people who had helped get Doug Hayes over to our side of the pond.**

 **Tom began to turn around when a soft female voice said, "Slowly, and with hands raised. Lucy, check him for a weapon." That was – he didn't know that yet – Beth Cutler Tucker.**

 **A late middle-aged woman patted him down. "He's clean," she said. She was Lucy Stone Masterson.**

" **Now," said yet another female voice, "just who the hell are you, and where did that little ship go?" The voice's owner was another late middle-aged woman, who had likely been a striking beauty in her day. She was grey-haired, but freckles on her face belied a redheaded past. Coppery snakelike tattoos up and down her arms resembled a mirror version of Lili Reed's false calloo tattoos. This woman was former** _Defiant_ **engineer, Jennifer Crossman.**

=/\=

" **Got anything yet?" Shelby stepped into the shuttle bay where Frank was working on the** _Flux Capacitor_ **. A wrapped sandwich was in her hands, her pretext for being there.**

" **Um, thanks," Frank said, taking it from her. "We're alone. C'mere a sec." They kissed.**

" **Well?"**

" **I wish I could figure it all out," he said, "there are lines here that collect, uh,** _something_ **. And circuits and relays over there are heading around, to here."**

" **So?"**

" **So the collection is, I think, fuel, although it might have something to do with how this thing passes through time. The relays I just mentioned – I think that those power a cloak. But again, I'll be damned if I know anything for sure."**

" **She'll torture that guy until he gives up all he knows about this thing." Shelby said, "Which I don't think is all that much."**

" **You're probably right." He took a bite out of the sandwich. "One thing that's really weird is, I don't think there's Communications anywhere on this thing."**

" **If you're going to 1492, you don't need 'em."**

" **Right, but you do in 2192. This thing just gets weirder and weirder, the more I look at it."**

=/\=

"Whew!" Sheilagh was breathless.

"Had enough?" HD yelled over the din of the loud, thumping music in a Miami nightclub.

"Yeah, I think so!" she yelled back.

"Ha, fella, goin' home with Mom, eh?" said some drunk.

HD glared at him. "What's it to ya?"

"C'mon, let it go," Sheilagh said to HD, taking his elbow and trying to steer him out of the club.

"Ditch the kid," commanded the drunk, "and get with a real man." He was a military type, possibly connected with the Cape.

"I'm already with a real man," she said.

"He's got no skills! Guys like that, they're just _wham bam, thank ya, Ma'am_!," replied the drunk.

"When did this magically, mystically turn into your business?" she asked sharply.

"Don't give him the goodies," the drunk slurred. He stumbled forward, and tried to grab her breast, but he missed his target.

"Get away from my girl," HD said menacingly.

"What're ya gonna do, sonny boy?"

HD uncorked a right, and hit the drunk squarely in the jaw. The drunk countered with a hard left straight into HD's gut. There was an audible " _Oof_!" as HD had the wind unceremoniously knocked out of him.

Sheilagh put a hand out and helped HD up. They ran out, searching for an alley. Finally finding one, they hit recall on the Transporter remote control and beamed back to the _Audrey II_ , which was orbiting the moon.

They sat together for a while, as HD felt himself recovering and the Stem Cell Growth Accelerator in his body doing its job and repairing a cracked rib or two. The stranger's punch had hurt a lot more than the damage would have normally caused, but such was the case with Stem Cell Growth Accelerator – all the pain in a fraction of the time. After a pause of some time, Sheilagh said, "So, I'm your girl?"

"If you think that, maybe, you wanna be."

"I definitely wanna be."

=/\=

 _Slide your feet up the streets  
Bend your back  
Shift your arm then you pull it back  
Like Sergeant O (Oh-Way-Oh)  
So strike a pose on a Cadillac_

 _If you want to find all the cops,  
They're hanging out in the donut shop.  
They sing and dance (Oh-Way-Oh)  
They spin their clock and cruise on down the block  
_

– The Bangles (Walk Like an Egyptian)


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

 _All the Japanese with their Yen  
The party boys call the Kremlin  
The Chinese know (Oh-Way-Oh)  
They walk along like Egyptians_

 _All the cops in the donut shops say:  
Way-oh-way-oh-way-ooh-ah-ooh...  
Walk like an Egyptian  
Walk like an Egyptian_

– The Bangles (Walk Like an Egyptian)

=/\=

HD was rather surprised by what happened next. He had, to be sure, dreamt and thought about losing his virginity. On several occasions, truth be told.

Sometimes it would be an Orion girl who just so happened to find him irresistible. Other times, it was a Betazoid singer. They would harmonize. And then they would _really_ harmonize. He had had crushes on a number of female teachers and musicians, and it had never gotten him anywhere.

But then! Ah, Sheilagh. He had not expected her to joke around. He had not expected her to be completely cool with his inexperience, and his eagerness, even when it threatened to kill the mood. He had not expected her to do things he had mainly conjectured at.

He woke up on the _Audrey II_ the following morning, arms wrapped around her and feeling more content than he had in a long time. "I guess we better get under way," he said as she yawned.

"Yeah, I guess so. First, we need to watch the launch," she said.

They turned on a broadcast – it didn't really matter which one. The launch had already happened, as they had overslept. And it was the rocket going up, with the boosters flying off in both directions as the _Challenger_ exploded.

"I guess we did it," he said, after staring at the images for a while. Pictures of the destruction were replaced with portrait images of the astronauts – Christa McAuliffe, Ellison Onizuka, Michael Smith, Dick Scobee, Judy Resnick, Ronald McNair and Gregory Jarvis.

"Yeah, I guess we did," she said, putting her clothes back on. "That is definitely one piece of this job that I think I might never get used to."

He took her hand. "You being here, it, uh, it makes it all a lot easier for me. Let me know what I can do to, uh, if I can ever make it easier for you."

She looked him in the eye. "Just be close," she said, "be approachable."

=/\=

" **Well?" It was Chip Masterson, holding a knife at Tom's throat.**

" **Uh, could ya'll move that away just a tiny bit? I'm afraid if I sneeze, I'll lose a liter of blood," Tom replied.**

 **Tripp nodded at him. Chip lowered the knife slightly. "We're still waiting, Southern Man."**

" **My name is Thomas Grant. I'm here to get the little ship you saw – I'm here to get it back. It was stolen by a fellow named Milton Walker. He's, his group, they're called the Perfectionists. They want to fix time up the way they want it."**

" **Empress Hoshi is snooping around, too," Beth said, "I take it the two things aren't unrelated?"**

" **Can I get my PADD?" Tom asked.**

 **Jennifer nodded and Beth gave it to him. He tapped it a few times to get it out of sleep mode. In sleep, it scrolled through a slideshow of family photographs – including Jennifer's counterpart in our universe.**

" **Thank you," Tom said, "now, I want ya'll to understand, I can't show you everything. I come from, well, it's a ways from now."**

" **What's your date of birth?" Chip demanded.**

" **June the seventeenth."**

" **Year?" Jennifer asked.**

 **Tom sighed. "3070."**

" **I don't know as I believe you," Tripp said, "but go on." He had a large facial scar and it looked like he wouldn't mind going a few rounds if he needed to.**

" **Um, all right," Tom gulped, trying to think of just how much to reveal. "I got it. Here in 2192, the Empress is coming here in order to collect missing tribute. She's also looking for starship parts manufacturers."**

" **Does she find them?" Beth asked.**

" **I, uh …"**

" **Answer the lady," Chip said.**

" **Chip, that's probably something that can't be revealed. It'll screw with the timeline too much, I'm guessing," Lucy said. She had been hanging back but watching the exchange.**

" **Exactly," Tom said, "it's, uh, revealing it would be what's called pariotric. I really cannot tell you. And this PADD is only going to work on my commands. Killing me is going to make it a nice, fancy paperweight for ya'll."**

" **Ha, paper, as if we've seen that in decades!" Beth snorted.**

" **Be that as it may," Jennifer said, "tell us, because I am thinking we have common interests now, if Empress Hoshi figures out how to work that ship, she should be able to go pretty much anywhere in time, right?"**

" **Yes, although the very deep future is problematic. You go too far into the future, there are far too many variables. The ship can't get a lock. The past is easy. The future, not so much."**

" **Right," Tripp said, musing, "That makes sense. You'd have probabilities, right?" Tom nodded. "So the past is at one hundred percent and then, I am guessing, the percentages start to drop as you go later and later."**

" **That's correct," Tom said, "get about two millennia ahead and it's just like throwing darts at a board."**

" **Got it," Chip said, "but in the meantime, she could still go back and change outcomes, right? Maybe we wouldn't be able to get away with the twins," he said directly to Lucy.**

" **Or maybe we wouldn't be able to get away, Charles," Beth said to Tripp, "she could kill off the old man or something, and you and I would still be on the** _Defiant_ **."**

" **No, we wouldn't be on the** _Defiant_ **anymore," Tripp said, "'cause I'd be dead of radiation poisoning and you, God, you'd probably be dead, too. I gotta figure you'd've been Jun's first kill."**

" **The old man is Doug Beckett, right?" Tom asked.**

" **Doug** _Hayes_ **," Jennifer corrected him.**

" **Oh, right. He, uh, he made it to my side of things," Tom said, "and he's a forebear of mine. And for a lotta other people, too."**

" **So the old man had kids, eh?" Jennifer asked, "With that blonde?"**

" **A few, yeah," Tom said. No sense in complicating matters by mentioning Melissa Madden's contributions to the gene pool. "Anyway, you can see why it's in my best interest, too, to get that time ship back. The way I see it, ya'll and I should be working together."**

=/\=

In 3110, the _Jack Finney_ arrived and Dan and Polly got out. He grunted at her, not wanting to talk. She shrugged. She was tired but also hungry. She did not really notice his foul mood as she made a beeline for the cafeteria.

=/\=

 _Sometimes you're better off dead  
There's gun in your hand and it's pointing at your head_

 _You think you're mad, too unstable  
Kicking in chairs and knocking down tables  
In a restaurant in a West End town  
Call the police, there's a madman around  
Running down underground to a dive bar  
In a West End town_

 _In a West End town, a dead end world  
The East End boys and West End girls  
In a West End town, a dead end world  
The East End boys and West End girls  
West End girls_

– Pet Shop Boys (West End Girls)


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

 _Too many shadows, whispering voices  
Faces on posters, too many choices  
If, when, why, what?  
How much have you got?  
Have you got it, do you get it, if so, how often?  
And which do you choose a hard or soft option?  
(How much do you need?)_

 _In a West End town, a dead end world  
The East End boys and West End girls  
In a West End town, a dead end world  
The East End boys and West End girls  
West End girls  
West End girls_

 _(How much do you need?)_

– Pet Shop Boys (West End Girls)

=/\=

"So, empanadas good for you tonight?" Lili asked.

"Uh, sure," Rick said absently, then realized something, and added, "I can't believe you remembered we made those when I was last here, a good thirty years ago."

"I never forget a taste." She joked.

"Let me, uh, check something out, and then I'll help you," Rick said. He walked out of Joss's house into the yard, where now there were only two headstones. "I wish I didn't know this," he said to himself softly, "but yours will be here, Lili," he paced out where her stone was going to be set, in about a decade. "And here, next to you will be Malcolm's, not one month afterwards. Then over there is Melissa's, and further over will be Norri's, and then over there will be Tommy Digiorno-Madden's. And this whole area will be fenced off and up there, up the rise, where the Reed house currently is, that's where the Temporal Museum will be. You park your car not ten meters from where Eleanor's office is going to be, in about nine hundred years." He clicked around on his PADD, looking around for pictures of his ancestors who were still alive in 2192. There were Jennifer Crossman Ramirez and Frank Ramirez. Another slide showed Aidan MacKenzie and his wife, Susan Cheshire.

Then he found a picture of Ethan Shapiro, but the man's wife looked odd to him. Stomach falling inside him, he rushed back into the house, where the women were beginning to get dinner ready. Malcolm was watching the viewer, with the baby, Jay, sleeping nearby.

"What's the matter?" asked Norri, "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"I, um, do any of you remember Ethan Shapiro?" Rick asked, not caring how peculiar the inquiry suddenly sounded.

"Sure, nice kid, a little short," Melissa said, "he married a fellow crew member named Karin."

Lili said, "There are a few pictures on the family's video wall in the hallway. The photographs are from Ethan's son's Bar Mitzvah. Malcolm, Declan and I went a few years ago."

"Bar Mitzvah? Not Bat?" Rick asked, a bit of panic rising.

"Um, Bar is for boys, right, Malcolm?" Lili asked, "Uh, Bar Mitzvah, it's a rite for Jewish boys, yes?"

"Yes, the counterpart for girls is a Bat Mitzvah," Malcolm said, "We, uh, we attended the Bar Mitzvah for Ethan and Karin Shapiro's son. He's named Ricky, just like you."

Rick felt his heart sink. "How many – uh, scratch that – where are the pictures? Can you show me?"

Jia took him over to the video wall in her house. She scrolled through the photographs until she found some of Malcolm, Lili and Declan, in fancy clothes, standing and smiling with Ethan Shapiro, the Karin who didn't look quite right, a daughter and a son. "Do you know what the daughter's name is?" Rick asked.

"Lili, Malcolm, do you know the Shapiros' daughter's name?" Jia called.

"Alice? Alicia?" Malcolm asked.

"Alia," Lili said.

That was wrong. Rick knew that much. There was a Karin, yes, but she was supposed to be fairer than the one in the picture staring him right in the face. And there was an Alia, certainly, but the correct photograph – of the correct family – had been taken at Alia's Bat Mitzvah, and not at this Ricky's Bar Mitzvah. Ricky was not supposed to even exist in the correct timeline. Instead, there was supposed to be a second daughter, named Rebecca.

Rick knew all of this intimately well because Rebecca was his direct forebear. It was she who was supposed to, eventually, marry Declan Reed. Rick's mind raced through the possibilities.

It was Karin. It had to have something to do with Karin. There was a definite issue with her. "Do you, uh, recall Karin's maiden name?" he asked, afraid of what he would hear.

"Schwerner," Melissa said.

And, Rick knew, it was supposed to be Bernstein.

=/\=

Helen Walker returned to her hideout on Callisto with a self-satisfied look on her face. She'd just completed a little side mission. She had told no one about it. It just seemed too slow and dull to go over the particulars with the entire Perfectionists movement. And, surely, no one could possibly find fault with _this_ particular alteration. It was – dare she say? – _Perfect_.

=/\=

Dan went over the note a few times, tweaking a comma here, an adverb there. He finally stopped. "Get a hold of yourself, Beauchaine," he said to his empty office, "no one's going to fault you for any grammatical errors in your damned suicide note."

He put his PADD down and began to contemplate just how he would off himself. Going out an airlock could work, although he knew that his Stem Cell Growth Accelerator would keep him lingering, painfully, in the vacuum of deep space, for an uncomfortably long time. When Boris and Marisol had met their maker out there, Boris had snapped her neck first – it was merciful under the circumstances and, perhaps, a final act of something barely resembling love. Marisol must have gone fairly quickly. But Boris had, most likely, felt the air whooshing out of his lungs and his cells screaming for oxygen as his blood had boiled and gone to vapor in his veins. Dan didn't want that.

A disruptor blast, maybe, that could work. He had one in his desk. He would be vaporized, more or less instantly. His family would not have a body to bury – would it interfere with closure for them?

He sighed. Surely, there were better ways to go.

He stared out the window of his office. Normally, since he was on the side facing away from the galactic core, he would only see two bright smudges in the deep distance. One of them was the Andromeda galaxy. And the other was the galaxy known as Triangulum.

But this time, he saw, instead, a mass of purple. It split off and continued to replicate itself as it moved. It was almost leapfrogging along, going along in little increments, seemingly hopping along in space.

"So you're the Varg-i-yeh," he said. He addressed his suicide note to his family, and to the department, and to Bryce Unger, along with a blind cc to Helen Walker – security be damned. He certainly had no reason to care about the Perfectionists' need for ultimate ultra-secrecy anymore. He hit _send_ and then rummaged around inside a desk drawer until he located the disruptor. He set it to its maximal setting. There could be no turning back.

"God forgive me for playing at being, well, at being _You_."

He pointed the disruptor at his forearm, and fired.

=/\=

 _In a West End town, a dead end world  
The East End boys and West End girls  
Ooh West End town, a dead end world  
East End boys, West End Girls  
West End girls_

 _You've got a heart of glass or a heart of stone  
Just you wait 'til I get you home  
We've got no future, we've got no past  
Here today, built to last  
In every city, in every nation  
From Lake Geneva to the Finland station  
(How far have you been?)  
_

– Pet Shop Boys (West End Girls)


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

 _In a West End town, a dead end world  
The East End boys and West End girls  
A West End town, a dead end world  
East End Boys, West End girls  
West End girls_

West End girls  
West End girls  
(How far have you been?)

– Pet Shop Boys (West End Girls)

=/\=

In 2192, Rick knew nothing of what had transpired just over nine hundred years later. He had enough to worry about.

He walked out of the house and back toward the two headstones. He put his hand on top of Doug's. "So, Gramps," he said, "ya got any idea what the _hell_ is going on?"

At that moment, something turned, and the change apparently, finally, caught up with him.

From inside Joss and Jia's house, they looked out the window at the back. "Who _is_ that guy?" Norri asked, referring to Rick, who was now an utter stranger to her.

"I'm sure I don't know," Melissa replied, "and I don't like him standing over there by Doug's stone and touching it like that. It's disrespectful."

Jia went into the living room and picked up little Jay. "I wish Joss was home," she said.

Malcolm touched a pocket. For some reason, he was armed. He had no idea that he had used that same hand phaser, only a few hours previously, to carve a mock headstone with an inscription referencing one Richard M. Daniels – or that the _M._ stood for _Malcolm_. He took the phaser out and told the women, "Stay in here. I shall handle this."

He walked over to Rick, who looked at him and said, "I can't figure out what's going on."

"I'll tell you what's bloody well going on," Malcolm said, a bit angrily, taking out the hand phaser, "You're trespassing. And you are bothering my family. I suggest you leave at once."

"Malcolm, what's gotten into you?"

"What? How'd you know?"

Lili came out, despite Malcolm's earlier warning. "What's going on? Who are you?" she asked Rick.

"You don't remember me?" Rick asked, more than a little hurt by that.

"I've never seen you before. _Ever_ ," she said.

"You and I, uh, you started working on the _NX-01_ after I had left. I had been a steward there," Rick said, figuring that would be more familiar than going into a full-blown description of his years as a time traveler.

"That's not helping," Lili said absently, and then she noticed Malcolm holding the hand phaser, "It's, I think it's all right, love. This man was just leaving, right?"

"I know you're Lili O'Day," Rick said, "I know the names of your kids, and I know how you and your first husband met," Rick said, and then told them.

Norri and Melissa came out to join them. "What's going on?" Melissa asked.

"I, I know that you have a bunch of sisters, and the names all start with the letter _M,_ " Rick said to her, "and I know you're somewhere in the middle of the birth order. And you," he said to Norri, "you're, uh, you have a doctorate. And you're in the middle of writing a book about the first human settlers in this system."

He felt in his shirt for his jewelry, figuring it would be his trump card in explaining things. He pulled out the chain that hung around his neck, fully expecting to find the dull grey skeleton key charm that was the same as the one Lili always wore. Instead, all he found was an engraved Xindi initiation medal, engraved with the initials, _RMD_. He began to fumble around, more fully panicking.

"What's the matter?" Norri asked.

"I – oh God – I've gotta take my ship," thankfully, the _Wells_ was still parked near the Reed house, and it seemed to be intact, "and, and I need to head back to 3110, and, and figure out where the divergence occurred."

"Divergence?" Lili asked.

"It looks an awful lot like, in the current, alternate reality – and this _is_ an alternate, even if none of you see it that way – that I've never been born."

=/\=

In 3110, Bryce Unger heard all sorts of alarms going off, just as he heard a Communications chime informing him of the presence of a new, written PADD message.

It was the red alert klaxon. Somewhere, within the vast network of offices that made up the interior of the _USS Adrenaline_ , a phaser or a disruptor had been fired.

He ran through a fast security protocol. The shot had been in one of the offices in the Human Unit, on the side facing away from the galactic core. Only the most junior of that unit's employees would have offices there – Dan Beauchaine, Polly Porter or HD Avery.

It had already been a lousy day, and that was a gross, insensitive understatement. Yarin and Castillo were dead. Time had been restored, probably, although, so far, it didn't seem like it was all back. He was beginning to suspect most of them and he hated that. He did not want to get into hot water with the Federation. It was bad enough that there had been an affair with a resultant murder-suicide. But he and the Department would be able to weather that particular storm if not too much else happened that was truly scandalous. And now a phaser blast! Would this day from hell never end?

=/\=

 **In 2192, Tom was blindfolded and brought to an encampment. They removed his blindfold and he saw around him the same few people who had initially grabbed him – Jennifer Crossman, Tripp Tucker, Beth Cutler Tucker, Chip Masterson and Lucy Stone Masterson.**

 **But now they were in a cave, and there were a few more people – two younger people of part-Asian extraction, a man and a woman. Plus there was a guy, probably the son of the Mastersons, and a pair of younger folk who were probably the offspring of the Tuckers. And a male Calafan, probably about fifty or so, with mature coppery calloo that was patterned a bit like an old-fashioned printed circuit diagram.**

" **I'm Takara," said the part-Asian woman, "and this is my brother, Takeo. Over there is my husband, Charlie Tucker. His sister, Betsy, and her husband, Ken Masterson, are over there. Treve here," she indicated the Calafan, "is Jennifer's husband."**

 **Takeo got up. "You'll help us against the Empress?"**

" **Yeah," Tom said, "but my primary goal is to get a time ship back, preferably with the guy who nabbed it, but he can be dead or alive, I reckon."**

" **Got it," Takara said, "and what are you gonna do about our dear old mother?"**

" **Mother?" Tom asked.**

" **We're the third and fourth of the Empress's five," Takeo explained. "The first two are Kira and Arashi and last one's Izo."**

" **What about Jun?" Tom asked.**

" **Jun?" Takara asked, "We don't have any brother with that name." And Tom knew that, somehow, Rick Daniels had been wiped from history.**

=/\=

 _Girls  
East End boys  
And West End girls  
And West End girls  
(... forever)  
And West End girls  
(How far have you been?)_

East End boys  
The West End girls  
The West End boys  
And West End girls

The West End girls  
The West End boys  
The West End girls,/em

– Pet Shop Boys (West End Girls)

 **Next (and finale):** _He Stays a Stranger_


End file.
